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BALTIMORE:  JOHN  MURPHY  &  CO. 


/ 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


Society  of  Jesus, 


FROM 


Its  Foundation  to  the  Present  Time. 

In  Tmto  Volumes. 

franslateir  from  l^e  <#reiu^  of  |.  p.  ^.  gattriguat, 

By  James   Clements, 

Author  of  ''The  Life  of  Sir  Robert  Peel." 

Second  EjatisED  Edition. 

With  ai/'^^endix  from  1862  to  1877. 
4C       '^  Vol.  I.  > 


-'''iilv 


^'^^ftTftiy  ^^'""^ 


^ 


Published  b  yTOHITMueph  y  &  Co. 

182   Baltimore   Street 
I  8T8. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1878,  by 

JOHN   MURPHY, 
in  the  Ofhce  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Wasliington. 


miidii 


'0{,  :^  5-3 


PREFACE 

To  THE  Second  Revised  Edition. 


The  author  of  this  excellent  compendium  of  the  history 
of  the  celebrated  society  founded  by  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola, 
was  not  a  member  of  the  order;  but  evidently  well  ac- 
quainted with  its  actions  and  its  glorious  record,  deeply 
grieved  at  the  glaringly  unjust  persecutions  to  which  it 
has  been  subjected,  and  yet  glorying  in  the  success  of  its 
labors  and  in  the  services  which  it  rendered  to  the  Church. 
And  though  throughout  the  two  volumes  there  is  the  glow 
of  enthusiasm  and  the  spirit  of  triumph,  yet  we  are  com- 
pelled to  say  that  the  fidelity  of  history  is  maintained,  and 
nothing  is  related  that  does  not  rest  on  undoubted  author- 
ity. For  this  reason,  we  have  deemed  it  advisable  to  issue 
a  second  edition  of  a  work  which  will  always  be  read  with 
interest ;  and,  to  render  it  still  more  acceptable  to  the  pub- 
lic, we  have  taken  the  pains  to  have  it  accurately  revised, 
corrected  of  the  errors  which  had  crept  into  the  former 
edition,  and  especially,  we  have  brought  the  history  of 
the  society,  from  the  point  where  the  author  had  left  it  in 
the  year  1862,  down  to  our  own  day.  "VVe  trust  that,  with 
these  improvements,  the  work  will  meet  with- favor,  and 
will  continue,  with  even  greater  success  than  before,  to  do 
justice  to  a  maligned  and  slandered  body  of  men  whose 
true  character  is  here  so  well  represented  and  vindicated. 

Baltimore,  March  17,  1878.  The  PUBLISHERS. 

•  •  • 

lU 


PEEFACE 
To  THE  First  Edition. 

The  history  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  possesses  so  much  of  deep 
interest,  such  a  variety  of  touching  and  edifying  incidents,  that  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that,  it  has  not  been  better  and  more  generally 
known.  It  is  frequently  said,  "the  Jesuits  are  intriguers;  the 
Jesuits  are  ambitious  ;  the  Jesuits  are  a  power  working  in  the 
dark,  wherever  they  are  tolerated." 

But  are  these  terrible  Jesuits  known?  No;  nor  do  they  seek 
to  know  them.  "  It  is  enough,"  they  say,  "  to  know  that  they  have 
been  expelled  by  every  government."  True,  they  were  expelled  by 
all  Catholic  states  ;  but  has  it  ever  been  asked  upon  what  grounds? 
Has  the  question  ever  been  asked  whether  the  ministers  who  ex- 
torted from  their  sovereigns  those  decrees  of  expulsion  were 
Christians,  either  in  principle  or  in  practice?  And  yet,  would  it 
not  be  well  that  we  should  investigate  the  matter  for  ourselves,  in- 
stead of  adopting,  at  random,  an  opinion,  the  foundation  of  which 
we  have  never  taken  the  pains  to  examine? 

But,  you  object,  "  the  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  by  M. 
Cretineau  Joly,  occupies  six  large  volumes;  it  is  impossible  to 
eater  upon  the  pei'usal  of  such  an  extensive  work." 

.  This  oft-repeated  objection  has  induced  the  author «to  prepare  a 
comprehensive  history  of  an  Order  in  itself  so  illustrious,  so 
fiercely  condemned  by  some,  so  much  admired  by  others;  an  Order 
to  which  many  have  been  friendly,  many  hostile,  few  indifferent. 

The  author  of  the  following  pages  has  made  it  his  study  to  be 
sufficiently  elaborate  to  enlighten  the  reader,  and  so  brief  as  not 
to  fatigue  or  discourage  any;  for  he  is  awai-e  that  those  whose 
life  is  mostly  devoted  to  social  duties,  have  the  least  time  for  read- 
ing. But  as  the  perusal  of  two  volumes  is  never  too  -formidable  a 
task,  even  for  a  busy  man,  the  author  has  some  hope  of  being  read. 

The  matter  is  ari-anged  chronologically,  under  the  administra- 
tion of  each  succeeding  General  of  the  Order,  and,  where  it  Avas 
possible,  according  to  the  succession  of  the  cotemporary  Popes. 
The  reader  will  thus  be  enabled  to  have  a  clearer  view  of  events 
1^  (v) 


vi  PREFACE. 

as  they  occurred  and  of  the  labors  undertaken  by  the  Society  of 
Jesus  in  the  various  parts  of  the  world,  under  the  direction  of  the 
several  Superiors. 

As  the  documents  which  M,  Cretineau  Joly  has  collected,  and 
made  the  basis  of  his  history  of  this  celebrated  society,  are  au- 
thenticated beyond  doubt  or  cavil,  the  author  has  not  hesitated  to 
accept  them  as  evidence  in  this  work. 

On  the  labors  of  the  Jesuits  in  our  own  days,  under  their  pres- 
ent General,  the  Kev.  P.  Beckx,  we  touch  but  lightly,  as  it  is  diflS- 
cult  to  speak  of  those  who  are  living. 

We  deem  it  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  assert  our  entire  in- 
dependence as  a  writer.  It  has  been  said  of  us  that  our  pen 
was  guided  by  the  Jesuits.  This  accusation  is  unfounded;  we  can 
fearlessly  assert  that  the  Jesuits,  neither  directly  nor  indirectly, 
ever  asked  any  favor  of  us  as  a  writer,  not  even  by  a  hint  or  in- 
sinuation. They  need  not  our  defense — God  is  with  them,  and 
for  them.  Our  object  in  penning  these  pages  was  twofold,  and  we 
have  no  hesitation  in  making  it  known  :  first,  to  give  informa- 
tion, on  a  very  interesting  subject,  to  men  who  can  not  find  time 
to  read  more  extended  histories  ;  secondly,  to  discharge  our  con- 
science of  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  saints  of  the  society,  to  whose 
intercession  we  are  indebted  for  many  special  favors.  Besides,  as 
we  had  already  published  the  history  of  the  founder,  it  was  natu- 
ral that  we  should  have  the  desire  of  following  up  the  fortunes  of 
his  Order,  from  its  origin  to  our  own  times.  True,  we  did  not  de- 
sire to  trespass,  and  we  deemed  it  our  duty  to  apply  to  the 
Jesuits  for  their  sanction,  before  encroaching  on  the  precincts 
of  their  historic  domain.  Permission  was  granted  without  hesita- 
tion— perhaps  through  a  fear  of  wounding  our  feelings  by  a  refu- 
sal; but,  however  that  may  be,  it  certainly  can  not  be  said  that  a 
writer  is  directed  when  his  pen  is  left  entirely  free.  Such  inform- 
ation as  we  needed  was  readily  and  cheerfully  furnished  by  the 
members  of  the  society.  For  this  the  author  is  assuredly  grate- 
ful ;  but  yet  this  does  not  imply  that  his  pen  has  been  directed 
or  influenced  by  them — quite  the  contrary. 

At  the  feet  of  St.  Ignatius,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  and  the  other 
saints  of  the  society  of  Jesus,  we  humbly,  but  confidently,  lay  this 
tribute  of  our  devotion,  in  the  hope  that  they  will  smile  upon  the 
fruits  of  our  labor,  and  cause  Heaven's  blessings  to  descend 
upon  us.  J.  M.  Daurignac. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


PAGE 

PREFACE iii 

INTRODUCTION xiii 

Origin  and  Foundation  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  (1522-1541) 1 

I.  Conversion  of  St.  Ignatius — Ilis  sojourn  at  Manresa — Pilgrimage — 

St  ui  lies 1 

II.  St.  Ignatius  in  Paris — The  Society  is  formed — First  labors  in  Italy.      6 
III.  La  Storta — Preaching  in  Rome — Calunniies — Juilgmeiit — Famine 
— Plan  of  the  Constitutions — Approval  of  the  Society — St.  Igna- 
tius, General 12 

Oenekalship  of  St.  Ignatius  Loyola,  (1541-1550) 26 

I.  Mission  in  Ireland — Zeal  and  devotedness  of  the  Jesuits — Legates.    2G 

II.  Labors  in  Italy — New  aspirants 31 

III.  The  Jesuits  in  France — Tiicir  success  in  Spain — .\ra05,  nephew  of 

¥<t.  Ignatius — St.  Francis  Xavier  and  Simon  Rodriguez  in' Portugal.    35 

IV.  Peter Lefevre — Lejayand  Bobadillain  (iermany— Peter  Canisius — 

Lefevre  in  Spain — His  death — Charitable  fouixiations  of  St.  Igna- 
tius— St.  Francis  Xavier  in  the  Indies — Foreign  missions 40 

V.  The  Jesuits  at  the  Council  of  Trent — Bishoprics  refused 53 

VI.  Bobadilla  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon — He  is  wounded — The  interim — 
The  Jesuits  in  Salamanca — Melchior  Cano — Death  of  the  Pope — 

Julius  III 60 

VII.  The  Duke  of  Gandia — Reassembly  of  the  Council — German  Col- 
lege      65 

VIII.  League  of  the  Parliament  and  of  the  University  of  Paris  against 
the  Society — Laynez  Provincial — The  Pope  wishes  to  make  him 

Cardinal 72 

IX.  .Jesuits   excommunicated  at  Saragosa — Reparation 80 

X.  Missions  of  Brazil — The  Jesuits  in  Ethiopia 84 

XI.  Apostleship  of  Father  Canisius  in  Germany — St.  Francis  Borgia 

refuses  the  Cardinal's  hat — Death  of  Ignatius 89 

Generalship  of  Father  Laynez,  Second  General,  (1556-1565) 03 

I.  Charles  V  and  St.  Francis  Borgia — Don  Sebastian — Jealousies  of 

the  Court — Calumnies — Pius  IV 93 

II.  Jealousies  in  the  University — Privileges  of  the  Roman  College — 

Fathers  Emond  Auger  and  Pelletier   in  France — Oi)i)osition....  100 

III.  The  Parliament  and  the  University  of  Paris  against  the  Jesuits — 

Conference  of   Poissy — Council   of  Trent — Tnum]ih   of  P^ather 
Laynez K'5 

IV.  The'Baron  of  Adrets — The  good  Father  Emond — The  plague  and 

the  Jesuits — Father  Possevin 114 

V.  Canisius  at  the  Diet  of  Petri  kaw — Calumnies  of  the  heretics — Car- 
dinal Charles  Borromeo — Reparation 121 

VI.  Missions  of  the  Indies — Of  Japan— Of  Brazil — Of  Africa — Death  of 

Father  Laynez 126 


Gkneralship  of  St.  Francis  Borgia,  Third  General,  (1565-1572) 139 

gsuits 

(Vii) 


I.  Pius  V — Frauds  against  the  Society — Epidemic — Jesuits  and  here- 
tics   139 


vni  CONTENTS    OF   VOLUME    I. 

PAGE 

II.  The  Moors  of  Granada— The  Plag:ue— Francis  of  Spain 14G 

III.  Plague  in  Portii.sal— Heroism  of  the  Jesuits— Father  da  Camara, 

Tutor  to  the  King— Plots  of  the  Court— The  Jesuits  in  France, 
Father  Perpinien — Conspiracy  in  Paris — The  clocks  of  Lyons — 
The  Fathers  Auger  and  Possevin 152 

IV.  The  Apostle  of  Germany — Canisius,  Apostohcal  Legate — St.  Stan- 

islaus Kostka — Fury  of  the  Heretics — Father  Maggio 1G2 

V.  Foreign  missions — Florida — Pern 166 

VI.  Brazil— Seventy  Jesuits  martyred  at  sea  by  the  Calvinists — The 

Indies — Japan 172 

VII.  Fr.ancis  Borgia  at  the  Courts  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and   France- 

Father  Tolet  with  Cardinal  Cammendoni— Battle  of  Lepanto— 
Death  of  the  Pope  and  of  St.  Francis  Borgia 182 

Generalship  of  Father  Mercurian,  Fourth  General,  (1572-1580) 189 

I.  Cruelty  of  the  Huguenots — Gregory  XIII — Odious  calumnv — Tri- 
umph  '. 189 

II.  Riot  at  Antwerp — Don  Juan  of  Austria — Anger  of  the  Heretics — 
Baius  and  Father  Bellarmine— Triumph  of  Father  Tolet — St. 
Charles  Borromeo 193 

III.  Elizabeth  persecutes  the  Catholics — Thomas  Pound — The  Jesuits 

in  England 200 

IV.  Mission  of  Brazil — Father  Anchieta — Progress  of  Christianity  in 

Japan — Father  Rudolphus  Aquaviva — Peter  Canisius  in  Switzer- 
land— Death  of  Father  Mercurian 209 

Generalship  of  Father  Claudius  Aquaviva,  Fifth  General,  (1581-1615)  217 

1.  Father  Possevin  Legate  in  Poland  and  Muscovy — His  mediation 
between  the   two  sovereigns — Negotiation   of  Father  Possevin 

with  the  Northern  Courts — Treaty  of  peace 217 

II.  The  traitor  Elliott — The  Fathers  PaVsons  and  Campian — Persecu- 
tions— Examinations,  tortures,  and  martyrdom  of  Fathers  Ed- 
mond  Campian,  Sherwin,  and  Briant 224 

III.  The  Gregorian  calendar — A  riot  of  butf^hers — Martyrdom  of  Fa- 

ther Rudolphus  Aquaviva  and  his  companions — Insurrection  at 
Naples  appeased  by  the  Jesuits — The  calendar  again — Riot  at 
Riga 237 

IV.  Sixtus  V  and  the  League — The  Pope  wishes  to  change  the  name 

of  the  Society — Firmness  and  humility  of  the  General — Death 

of  Sixtus  V — Death  of  St.  Aloysius  Gonzaga 244 

V.  Death  of  Henry  III— Henry  IV  and  the  "Confederate.s — Father 
Tolet  Cardinal— St.  Francis  of  Sales  pupil  of  Father  Possevin  — 
Father  Possevin  and  Cardinal  Tolet  have  the  excommunication 
of  Henry  IV  removed — John  Chastel — Injustice  of  Parliament — 
Martyrdom  of  Father  Guignard,  and  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits 

from  Paris 248 

VI.  Persecution  in   England — Martyrdom   of  Jesuits — Death   of  the 

Queen ': .* 257 

VII.  Persecution  in  Japan — Martyrs  and  conversions 261 

VIII.  Death  of  Cardinal  Tolet — Father  Bellarmine  Cardinal — Revenge 

of  the  Heretics — Father  Coton  and  Henry  IV — The  Jesuits 
frighten  Parliament — Henry  IV  recalls  them — They  preach  the 

Gospel  in  Canada 205 

IX.  Gunpowder  Plot  in  England 273 

X.  Ru})ture  between  the  Venetian  Senate  and  the  Roman  Court — The 

Jesuits  faithful  to  the  Holy  See— They  are  banished 286 

XI.  Canonization  of  St.  Ignatius  and  St.  "Francis  Xavier — Death  of 
Henry  IV — Odious  accusation — Insurrection  at  Aix-la-Chapclle 
and  at  Prague — Fourteen  Franciscans  burned — The  Jesuits  are 

surrounded  and  robbed 291 

XII.  Father  Geronimo  Xavier  preaches  the  Gospel  in  the  Mogul  Em- 
jiire — Father  Legoda  in   Tartary— Father  Nobili   in   IMadura— 

Father  Ricci  in  China 299 

XIII.  Franciscans  in  Japan — Treason — The  twenty  martyrs — Three  Jes- 
uits crucified — More  Christians — More  martyrs — The  Protestants 
enter  Japan  and  calumniate  the  Jesuits 307 


CONTENTS    OF    VOLUME    I.  ix 

PAGB 

XIV.  Missions    of  Ethiopia,  in  the  whole  of  Africa,  and  in  the  two 

Americas— Death  of  Father  Chiudius  Aquaviva 317 

Generalship  of  Father  Mutius  Vitelleschi,  Sixth  General,  (1615-1645)  324 

I.   JMonita  Secreta 324 

II.  Progress  of  Cntiiolicity  in  Germany,  Poland,  and  Russia  by  the 
Jesuits — Their  labors  in  Italy — Father  Arnoux  and  Louis  Xll — 
Death  of  the  Pope,  John  Bercdrmans,  and  Cardinal  Bellarniine — 
Gregory  XV  canonizes  St.  Ignatius  and  St.  Francis  Xavier 330 

III.  War  in  Germany — Father  Frederick  Spee 339 

IV.  Fresh  persecutions  of  the  Parliament — Death  of  Father  Coton — 

Royal  favor — Pardon  of  enemies 345 

V.  Martyrdom  of  Jesuits  at  Utrecht — Jansenius — St.  Cyran— St.  Vin- 
cent de  Paul— Port  Royal 352 

VI.  The  Island  of  I\Lalta  and  the  Jesuits — The  Jesuit  martyrs  in  Eng- 
land—The  ^cwoZe  Pie  and  Father  Pietra  Santa 360 

VII.  Increased  persecutions 'in  Japan — Numberless  martyrs — Father 
S[)inola — The  Fathers  Buzoni  and  Carvalho — Twenty -four  Jesuit 
martyrs — An  apostate — Father  Mastrilli — The  apostate  martyr.  367 
VIII.  Difficulties  in  the  mission  of  China — Father  de  Rhodes  in  Cochin 

China  and  at  Tonquin — Missions  of  Asia 378 

IX.  Missions  of  the  two  Americas 385 

X.   Eeoublic  of  Paraguay — Don   Bernadino  de  Cardenas — Death  of 

Urban  VIII  and  Father  Mutius  Vitelleschi 391 

Generalship  of  F.^ther  Vincent  Caraffa,  Seventh  General,  (1645-1649)  399 

I.  Bankruptcy  of  Seville — Father  Jarrige — Martyrs  of  Canada — Don 

Juan  de  Palafox — Death  of  the  Father-General 399 

Generalship  of  Father  Piccolomini,  Eighth  General,  and  of  Father 
Gottifredi,  Ninth  General,  (1649-1652) 410 

II.  Father  de  Rhodes  in  Rome  and  Paris — Retractation  of  Jarrige — 

Disputes  of  the  Jansenists — Christina  of  Sweden — Persecution 
in  England  —  Missions  of  Canada  —  Paraguay  —  Father  Adam 
Schall  at  Pekin — Death  of  Father  Piccolomini— Death  of  Father 
Gottifredi 410 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  II. 


I'AGE 

Generalship  of  Father  Goswin  Nickel,  Tenth  General,  (1652-1G61) 3 

I.  Jansenism  at  Rome — Foreign  missions 3 

II.  Don   Juan   de   Paiafox — Letlres  Provinciates — The  Jesuits   return 

to  Venice — Martyrdom  of  Father  Bobola 8 

III.  Letter  of  the  Empress  of  China — Missions  cf  America— Death  of 

the  Father-General 13 

Generalship  of  Father  Paul  Oliva,  Eleventh  General,  (1661-1G81) 20 

I.  Theologians  of  Port  Royal — Father  Annat,  Confessor  of  Louis 
XIV — Fresh  calumnies — Plot  of  the  Bonzes  at  Pekin — Death 
of  Father  Adam  Seliail 20 

II.  Intrigues  of  the  Jansenists — Father  Bourdaloue — Foreign  mis- 

*sions — The  impostor  Lusancy — Pere  Lachaise 25 

II.  Ridiculous  accusation  of  the  Heretics — Titus  Gates — Father  John 

de  Britto— Death  of  Father  OUva 32 

Generalship  of  Father  Charles  de  Notelle,  Twelfth  General,  (1681- 

1687) 38 

I.  Regal  rights — The  Four  Articles  of  1682 — Revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes — Progress  of  Christianity  in  China — Death  of  Father 
deNoyelle .' 38 

Generalship  of  Father  de  Santalla,  Thirteenth  General,  (1G87-1706)    43 

I.  Rivalry  of  France  and  Spain — Firmness  of  the  Father-General— 
Father  Peter  and  the  King  of  England — Exactions  of  Josei)h 

I— Tlie  Jesuits  in  China 43 

II.  Alexander  VIII  and  Innocent  XII — Louis  XIV  yields  on  the  Four 
Articles;  the  Jansenists  alone  sustain  them — Religious  discus- 
sions— Pc-re  Lachaise — Rolhn 47 

III.  The  Jesuits  and  the  Dominicans  in  China — National  customs  and 
ceremonieis — Madura,  Paraguay — California — Guiana — Death  of 
the  Father-General .'. 52 

Generalship  of  Father   Tamburini,  Fourteenth  General,  (1706-1730).     60 

I.  Cardinal  de  Tournon  in  China  and  the  Indies — Suppression  of 
Port   Royal   des  Champs — Father  Letellier — Condemnation  of 

^^Eeflexio'ns  Morales'" — Bull  Unigeiiitus — Death  of  the  King 60 

II.  Jansenist  hatreds — Calumnies — Plague  of  IMarseillei* 69 

III.  Chinese  customs  again— The  appellants— Death  of  the  Father- 
General 76 

Generalship  of  Father  Francis  Retz,  Fifteenth  General, -(1730-1750).    80 

I.  Tri])le  allian.ce  of  Jansenism,  Protestantism,  and  Infidelity — 
Catharine   Caditre — Father   Chamillard — Madame  Vianen    and 

the  dying  patient  of  the  HCtei  Dieu 80 

II.  Question  of  Chinese  customs  decided,  and  the  submission  of  the 
Jesuits — Treason  of  Antiguera — Civil  war  in  Paraguay — Gold 
mines — Death  of  the  General 89 

Generalship  of  Father  Visconti,  Sixteenth  General,  (1750-1755),  and 
OF  Father  Cestukioni,  Seventeenth  General,  (1755-1757) 97 


CONTENTS    OF    VOLUME    II.  xi 

PAGE 

I,  Sebastian  Carvalho,  Marquis  of  Pomhal— His  hypocrisy— His  per- 
fidy— He  persecutes  the  nohihty.  the  Jesuits,  and  the  Indians — 

Nicholas  I,  Emperor  of  Parai^uay 97 

II.  Free-thinkers  at  the  Court  of  France — Father  Lavallette  at  Mar- 
tinique— Peter  Damiens — Death  of  Father  Centurioni 105 

Generalship  of  Father  Ricci,  Eighteenth  General,  (1758-1775) 110 

I.  Ponibal  wishes  to  suppress  the  Jesuits  in  order  to  estahhsh  the 
Protestant  rehgion  in  PortUi^al— The  Tavoras — Ponibal's  cruel- 
ties— Banishment  and  imprisonment  of  the  Jesuits 110 

II.  Narration  of  Father  (hi  Gad,  Superior  of  the  mission  of  China 121 

III.  Father  Przii^wiirs  Letter l-2(» 

IV.  The  Lavallette  bankruptcy— Parliamentary  persecutions- Assem- 

bly of  cleigv 135 

V.  Iniquities  of  iParl lament  and  of  the  Minister— Choiseul— Banish- 
ment of  tlie  Jesuits  from  France 142 

VI.  Riot  at  Madrid— Impious  plot  against  the  Society  of  Jesus— Sup- 
posed letters— Banishment  of  the  Jesuits  from  Spain— Fruitless 

remonstrances  of  the  Pope  and  Bishops 14:9 

VII.  A  discovery — Fresh  demands — The  coalition  causes  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Society  from  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  and  the  Duke- 
dom of  Parma— The  Courts  invade  the  Papal  States— Firmness 

of  Clement  XIII— He  dies  of  grief. 158 

VIII.  Intrigues  of  the  Courts  at  the  Conclave— Clement  XIV— He  is 
urged  to  suppress  the  Society— The  Courts  threaten  him — The 
Pope  allows  Viimself  to  be  intimidated — He  suppresses  the  So- 

cietj' and  becomes  insane 168 

IX.  E.xecution  of  the  Brief — The  King  of  Prussia  retains  the  Jes- 
uits— Catharine  II  refuses  to  sacrifice  them 178 

X.  Death  of  Clement  XIV— Heroic  submission  of  the  Jesuits  in  the 
missions — Death  of  Father  Ricci — Prediction  of  Father  Beaure- 
gard.,   185 

The  Society  of  Jesus  Providentially  Preserved,  (1775-1802) 193 

I.  Triumph  of  the  enemies  of  the  Church — Pius  VI  authorizes  the 
conservation  of  the  Society  in  Russia — Labors  of  the  secularized 

Jesuits 193 

II.  The  secret  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  Spain — Condem- 
nation of  Pombal — His  victims  released — Revolution  in  France 
— The  Jesuits  recalled  to  Parma— Pius  VII  approves  the  con- 
servation of  the  Society , 199 

Generalship  of   Father  Gruber,  Nineteenth  General,  (1802-1805) 207 

I.  The  Jesuits  of  Great  Britain  and  North  America  are  again  incor- 
porated in  the  Society — The  Kingdom  of  Naples  asks  for  the 
return  of  the  Fathers— The  Fathers  of  the  Sacred  Heart  and 
the  Fathers  of  the  Faith— Death  of  Father  Gruber 207 

Generalship  of  Father  Brzozowski,  Twentieth  General,  (1805-1820)...  212 

I.  Labors  in  Russia — Solemn  reestablishment  of  the  Society  for  the 

entire  world — The  King  of  Sardinia  a  Jesuit 212 

II.  The  Jesuits  recalled  in  Spain  and  in  the  Dukedom  of  Madeira — 
Numerous  aspirants— Union  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Faith  and 
of  the  Sacred  Heart — The  Jesuits  return  to  France — The  Fathers 

of  the  Faith  are  incorporated  in  the  Society 218 

III.  The  Jesuits  in  Maryland— Russia  accomplishes  her  work— Death 

of  the  Father-General 225 

Generalship^of  Father  Fortis,  Twenty-first  General,  (1820-1829) 2:i0 

I.  The  Jesuits  expelled  from  Russia  are  received  with  joy  by  Aus- 
tria— The  revolutionists,   the  persecutot's  in  Spain  and  France.  230 
II.  Leon  XII  favors  the  Society— The  Liberals  embittered  against 

the  Jesuits  in  all  the  European  States 237 

111.  Absurd  fables  about  Montrouge — Cabal  against  the  teachings 
of  the  Jesuits— Ordinances  which  lead  them  to  retire— Success 
of  the  Jesuits  in  the  United  States— Death  of  Father  Fortis 244 


Xll  CONTENTS    OF    VOLUME    II. 

PA  OB 

Genejialship  of  Father  John  Roothaan,  (1829-1853) 255 

I.  Revolution  in  France — The  sacking  of  Montrouge — War  against 
the  Jesuits — They  are  called  to  Belginm— Riot  at  Dresden — 
Father  Beckx  at  Brunswick— Return  of  the  Fathers  to  Portugal 

—Death  of  Pius  VIII— Election  of  Gregory  XVI .T...  255 

II.  The  cholera  in  France— Devotion  of  the  Jesuits — Father  Druilliet 
at  Bordeaux — Charles  X  asks  for  the  Jesuits  to  educate  the 
Duke  of  Bordeaux — The  Fathers  Leplaee  and  Druilhet — Diffi- 
culties— Success — Separation 265 

III.  Fjfther    McCarthy— Father   Potot— Father   de   Ravignan— Fresh 

persecutions — Retraction — Mission 272 

IV.  Rossi — Dispersion  of  the  Jesuits 279 

V.    A  family  feast — A  death  forgotten — Pardon  of  enemies — Cholera 

and  civil  war  in  Portugal— The  Jesuits  attacked  by  the  revolu- 
tionists, and  expelled  from  the  kingdom .' 285 

VI.  Cholera  and  civil  war  in  Spain — Calumnies — Martyrdom — Expul- 
sion  " 296 

VII.  The  Jesuits  in  Belgium — Germany — Switzerland  —  Piedmont — 
Gregory  XVI  confides  to  the  Jesuits  the  College  of  ihe  Propa- 
ganda— The  cholera  in  Rome — Cardinal  Odescalehi  enters  the 

Society 302 

VIII.  Father  de  Smet — Father  Larkin — Foreign  missions 310 

IX.  Pius    IX — Orphan  Asylum   in  Algiers— Father  Brumauld — Rev- 
olution in  France 321 

X.  Father  Brumauld  and  the  orphans  of  Paris — Father  Chable  and 
the  Germans — The  Jesuits  at  Cayenne — Death  of  Father  Roo- 
thaan 326 

Geneealship  of  Father  Beckx,  Twenty-third  General,  (18.o3-1860) 334 

I.  Father  de  Ravignan — Father  Arthur  Martin  and  Charles  Cahier — 
Association    of   St.   Francis    Xavier,   Father    Milesiot — Father 

Felix 334 

II.  Father  Parabere  in  Africa  and  the  Crimea — Father  Gloriot — Mis- 
sions of  Cayenne 340 

III.  Orphan  Asylum  of  Algiers — Death   of  Father  Chable — His  suc- 

sessor — The  Acrobats — The   Apprentices Ml 

IV.  The  Jesuits  in  Belgium — Bomb-shells — The  Jesuits  in  Austria — 

Italy — The  Madonna  of  the  Montorella — The  Madonna  of  Vel- 

leti-i 352 

V.  Missions  of  Oregon — Father  de  Smet  and  Father  Joset — Father 
Weninger  in  the  United  States — Marvels  of  his  apostleshi|i — 
Father  Larkin — His  death — Martyrs,  Saints,  Blessed,  and  Ven- 
erable of  the  Society  of  Jesus 357 

Appendix  from  1862  to  1878 .' 371 

The  Present  Missions 396 


INTRODUCTION. 


Every  one  has  heard  of  the  Jesuits:  throughout  the  whole 
civilized  world  they  are  either  hated  or  beloved.  No  one  de- 
spises them  ;  to  no  intelligent  man  is  the  society  an  object  of 
simple  indifference.  To  some  it  is  inexpressibly  odious;  in 
many  souls  it  begets  tender  reverence  and  affectionate  grati- 
tude. 

The  Jesuits  are  talked  of  by  many ;  they  iare  known  by  few. 
Nor  has  it,  hitherto,  been  easy  for  those  not  brought  into  actual 
contact  with  them  to  know  them  as  they  are.  The  history  of 
the  society,  by  Cretineau  Joly,  has  been  before  the  world  for 
some  years;  but,  independently  of  its  great  length,  which  de- 
ters the  general  reader  from  attempting  it,  it  is  a  sealed  book 
to  the  many  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  language  of  its  au- 
thor. 

The  translator  of  the  more  popular  sketch,  recently  pub- 
lished in  France,  by  M.  Daurignac,  has  thought  that,  by 
offering  this  work  to  the  public  in  an  English  dress,  he 
would  be  supplying  a  void  in  our  literature,  and  rendering  a 
service  likely  to  be  appreciated  by  tha-t  large  class  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  history  of  our  modern  civilization,  and  who  de- 
sire that  such  information  as  they  possess  should  be  derived 
from  authentic  sources,  and  be  reliable  and  precise,  so  far  as  it 


goes. 


He  has  supposed  that  a  natural  curiosity  may  well  exist  to 
know  something  of  a  society  of  which  so  much  is  said;  whose 
missionaries,  theologians,  philosophers,  orators;  whose  stu- 
dents and  writers  in  every  department  of  literature  and  science; 
whose  saints  and  whose  sages  have,  for  three  centuries,  been 
foremost  in  the  palaces  of  kings  and  the  hovels  of  the  poor,  in 
the  cell  of  the  prisoner  and  in  the  trackless  forests  of  a  newly- 
discovered  world,  in  the  council  chambers  of  statesmen  and  in 
2  (xiii) 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

the  retreats  of  learning;  who  have  dared  all  things,  endured 
all  things,  hoped  all  things;  who  have  set  the  world  an  exam- 
ple of  courage  which  has  never  been  surpassed,  of  humility 
and  obedience  which  have  never  been  equalled ;  who,  prudent 
as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves,  perseveringly  in  every 
clime — and  what  region  of  the  earth  is  not  full  of  their  la- 
bors ? — amid  all  the  changes  and  chances  of  this  mortal  life, 
have  made  themselves  all  things  to  all  men,  in  order  that  by 
all  means  they  might  gain  to  Christ  a  few — their  watchword, 
the  maxim  of  their  great  founder,  "  For  the  greater  glory 
OF  God." 

Their  founder,  a  man  of  the  world  and  a  soldier,  in  middle 
age  so  full  of  the  vanities  of  the  world,  that  he  compelled  his 
surgeon  to  inflict  upon  him  repeated  and  agonizing  tortures,  in 
the  hope  of  avoiding  thereby  a  trifling  disfigurement — so  igno- 
rant of  Christian  morals,  that  he  was  saved,  apparently  by  a 
mere  accident,  from  committing  murder  to  avenge  an  insult  to 
his  faith;  so  illiterate  that  he  had  never  had  the  Latin  gram- 
mar in  his  hand — renounced  in  an  instant,  utterly  and  for- 
ever, the  world  which  he  had  so  much  loved,  became  the 
spiritual  father  of  theologians,  the  momentum  of  whose  onset 
drove  back  the  hosts  of  error,  thereby  staying  the  plague  of 
atheism,  and  hemming  in  the  torrents  of  heresy,  in  Europe, 
within  the  bounds  which  it  occupied  when  the  society  w-as 
formed,  and  beyond  which  it  has  not,  to  this  day,  surged, 
and,  finally,  stood  forth  the  father  of  the  most  learned  and 
most  distinguished  literary  corporation  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen. 

Of  this  wonderful  society,  what  is  thought  by  the  mass  of 
those  who  visit  it  with  their  groundless  dislike,  may  probably 
be  summed  up  in  the  definition  of  the  word  "Jesuit,"  given 
by  Noah  Webster,  a  man  whose  definitions  are  seldom  offens- 
ively erroneous,  and  who  has  certainly  not  gone  intention- 
ally out  of  his  way  to  attack,  under  cover  of  explanation. 
He  says  that  a  Jesuit  is,  "  1st,  one  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
so  called — a  society  remarkable  for  their  cunning  in  propa- 
gating their  principles;  2d,  a  crafty  person,  an  intriguer." 
And  we  believe  Dr.  Webster  to  have  been  in  simple  good 
faith  in  giving  that  definition.     He  was  a  learned  man,  after 


INTRODUCTION. 


XV 


the  learning  of  his  age  and  country,  and  this  was  his  idea  of 
a  Jesuit.  To  him  the  word  meant  this,  and  this  alone;  it 
was  associated  in  his  mind  with  nothing  heroic,  nothing 
saintly,  with  no  discoveries  in  science,  no  beauties  of  litera- 
ture, nothing  glorious  in  art:  to  him  it  was  simply  the 
synonym  of  every  thing  most  hateful  and  most  dangerous — 
craft  and  cunning. 

The  candid  reader  of  this  book  will  certainly,  on  closins  it, 
admit,  whatever  opinion  he  may  still  entertain  of  the  Jesuits, 
that  the  very  general  existence  of  this  prejudice  is  a  remark- 
able, and  he  will  probably  find  it  an  inexplicable,  phenome- 
non. The  writer  of  these  lines,  a  son  of  a  Church  which  he 
knows  to  be  hol}'^,  and  brought  up  in  a  land  where  it  is  very 
generally  hated  and  ignored,  calnih'  accepts  both  facts,  and 
has  a  theory  by  which  he  explains  them,  which  to  him  is  sat- 
isfactory and  even  consoling. 

His  theory  is,  that  this  phenomenon  of  universal  hatred  and 
reproach,  taken  in  connection  with  those  facts  in  the  case 
which  become  plain  to  every  inquirer,  and  viewed  in  the 
lighf  thrown  upon  them  by  certain  sacred  words  of  Him  who 
is  Truth  itself,  proves  that  the  men  thus  slandered  are,  in- 
deed, the  very  opposite  of  what  they  are  represented  to  be. 
"  Behold,  I  send  you  as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves ;  be  ye, 
therefore,  wary  as  serpents  and  guileless  as  doves;  you  will 
be  hated  by  all  men  for  My  Name's  sake.  The  disciple  is 
not  above  his  Master:  if  they  have  called  the  Master  of  the 
house  Beelzebub,  how  much  more  them  of  his  household?" 
(St.  Matthew  x,  16,  22,  25). 

He  would  say,  in  short,  of  the  society,  what  a  great  writer 
has  said  of  the  Church  of  which  it  is  one  of  the  glories:  "  If 
there  be  a  society  which  is  felt  to  be  so  simply  bad  that  it 
may  be  calumniated  at  hazard  and  at  pleasure,  it  being  noth- 
ing but  absurdity  to  stand  upon  the  accurate  distribution  of 
its  guilt  among  its  particular  acts,  or  painfully  to  determine 
how  far  this  or  that  story  is  literally  true,  what  is  not  proved, 
or  what  may  be  plausibly  defended ;  a  society  such  that  men 
look  at  a  member  of  it  with  feelings  which  no  sect  raises  except 
Judaism,  Socialism,  or  Mormonism — with  animosity,  fear,  sus- 
picion, disgust,  as  the  case  may  be;  or  as  if  something  strange 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

had  befallen  him,  as  if  he  had  had  initiation  into  a  mystery, 
and  had  come  into  communion  with  dreadful  influences;  aa 
if  he  were  now  one  of  a  confederacy  which  claimed  him,  ab- 
sorbed him,  stripped  him  of  his  personality,  reduced  him  to  a 
mere  organ  or  instrument  of  a  whole;  a  society  which  men 
rate  as  proselytizing,  anti-social,  revolutionary,  or  dividing 
families,  separating  chief  friends,  corrupting  the  maxims  of 
government,  making  a  mock  at  law,  dissolving  the  empire, 
the  enemy  of  human  nature,  and  a  conspirator  against  its 
rights  and  privileges;  which  they  associate  with  intrigue  and 
conspiracy;  which  they  speak  about  in  whispers;  which  they 
detect  by  anticipation  in  whatever  goes  wrong,  and  to  which 
they  impute  whatever  is  unaccountable;  a  society  the  very 
name  of  which  they  would  cast  out  as  evil,  and  use  simply  aa 
a  bad  epithet,  and  which,  from  the  impulse  of  self-preserva- 
tion, they  would  persecute  if  they  could;  if  there  be  such  a 
society  now  in  the  world,  it  is  not  unlike  Christianity  as  that 
same  world  viewed  it  when  it  first  came  forth  from  its  Divine 
Author."  * 

The  calumnies  of  the  Jansenists,  and  the  pasquinades  of 
the  brilliant  but  malignant  Pascal,  have  also  much  to  do 
with  the  popular  tradition  which  has  been  formed  about  the 
Jesuits.  These  calumnies  they  never  noticed;  they  answered 
them  as  did  the  great  Scipio  his  enemies  in  his  time — by  deeds, 
not  words.  At  the  time  of  the  dreadful  pestilence  at  Mar- 
seilles, alluded  to  by  Pope, 

"When  nature  sickened,  and  each  gale  was  death," 

the  Jansenists,  calumniators  of  the  sons  of  St.  Ignatius,  the  sol- 
dier, were  in  spiritual  charge  of  the  city.  They  fled  like  bad 
shepherds  who  care  not  for  their  flock;  but  the  Jesuits  hast- 
ened there  from  a  neighboring  town,  died  at  their  posts,  and 
left  their  good  name  in  the  hands  of  the  grateful  Marseillais. 
Many  such  traits  will  the  reader  find  in  these  short  and 
simple  annals,  which  the  translator  commits  to  the  candor  of 
the  public.     He  has  done  his  best;  his  aim  has  been  to  sup- 

*  Newman's  Develop.,  p.  116,  Am.  Ed. 


INTRODUCTION.  Xvii 

ply  a  want,  to  offer  means  for  the  satisfaction  of  a  natural 
and  reasonable  curiosity.  lie  was  convinced  that  such  a 
work  was  wanted,  and  he  has  taken  advantage  of  its  appear- 
ance to  render  it  accessible  to  tliose  who  speak  his  mother 
tongue.  It  is  no  panegyric:  it  is  an  unvarnished  narrative  of 
facts.  The  language  of  panegyric  is  not  often  in  the  mouths 
of  such  as  know  the  Jesuits,  when  speaking  of  those  devoted 
men,  who  work  not  for  their  own  glory,  but  "ylf/  majorem  Dei 
gloriam'" — for  the  greater  glory  of  God.  Their  panegyric  is  in 
the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  they  have  ministered  the  bread 
of  life,  rather  than  on  their  lips;  and  now,  as  of  old,  words  fail, 
or  appear  unseemly  to  one  to  whom  the  word  "Jesuit"  sug- 
gests the  recollection  of  many  a  venerated  friend  whom  he 
shall  see  in  the  flesh  no  more;  of  men  of  whom  the  world  was 
not  worthy,  "  quorum  non  est  dignus  procumbens  solvere  cor' 
rigiam  calceamentorum  eorumy 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  December  ZXst,  1864. 
2* 


IIISTOM  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 


©ngiit  ani  iBUuiiitroii  lof  ll]c  (Ortct. 

15, '3  3  —  15<L1.' 
I. 

On  the  21st  of  March,  1522,  an  elep^antly  attired  cava- 
lier alighted  at  the  Benedictine  Monastery  of  Mont-Ser- 
rat,  in  the  province  of  Catalonia,  and  requested  of  the 
good  religions  that  hospitality  which  they  were  wont  to 
show  pious  pilgrims.  In  the  richness  of  his  costume, 
combined  with  his  noble  and  elegant  manners,  it  was 
easy  to  recognize  one  of  the  grandees  of  the  court  of 
Charles  V.  His  manly  bearing,  his  energetic  and  lofty 
demeanor,  at  once  indicated  the  chivalrous  warrior.  He 
was  conducted  to  one  of  the  cells  of  the  monastery,  where, 
on  being  asked  his  name,  he  replied  that  he  was  the  ''  Un- 
known Pilgrim." 

During  the  three  days  which  succeeded  his  arrival  at 
Mont-Serrat,  he  made  a  general  confession.  On  the 
evening  of  the  24th,  he  quitted  the  monastery  unob- 
served, and,  calling  one  of  the  beggars  who  surrounded 
the  church-porch,  took  him  aside,  and  exchanged  the 
splendid  garments  which  he  himself  wore  for  the  tat- 
tered garb  of  the  mendicant.  Thus  habited  in  the  liv- 
ery of  poverty,  he  proceeded  to  distribute  among  the 
poor  all  the  money  in  his  possession,  and  subsequently 
returned  to  his  cell.     There  he  attired  himself  in  a  long 

(1) 


2  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY  OF    JESUS. 

robe  of  gray  cloth,  beneath  which  disappeared  the  beggar's 
rags.  He  then  passed  a  thick  cord  around  his  waist,  to 
which  he  attached  his  cUtterino-  sword  and  jewelled  pon- 
iard,  and,  taking  in  one  hand  a  pilgrim's  staff,  and  in  the 
other  a  large  slouched  hat,  called  by  the  Spaniards  a 
sombrero,  he  betook  himself  to  the  church,  and  prostrated 
himself  before  the  altar  of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

This  unknown  pilgrim  was,  in  fact,  no  other  than  one 
of  the  highest  lords  of  the  royal  court,  and  already  an 
illustrious  warrior  ;  for,  although  he  was  but  thirty-one 
years  of  age,  he  had  distinguished  himself  in  several 
battles,  more  particularly  at  the  siege  and  taking  of  Na- 
gera,  and  at  the  defense  of  the  Citadel  of  Pampeluna.  In 
the  latter,  his  deeds  of  valor  were  prodigious;  but,  as  he 
was  gallantly  and  defiantly  fighting  the  foe,  he  was  struck 
by  a  cannon-ball,  which  broke  his  right  leg,  while,  at  the 
same  moment,  some  shattered  splinters  of  stone  inflicted 
a  severe  wound  in  the  left  leg.  This  was  on  Whit-Mon- 
day, May  20,  1521. 

Andre  de  Foix,  who  commanded  the  besiegers,  having 
seen  the  young  Spanish  ofiicer  fall  like  a  hero,  treated 
him  as  such.  He  not  only  refused  to  accept  his  sword, 
but  received  him  as  a  brother  soldier ;  and,  having  care- 
fully placed  him  on  a  litter,  he  gave  him  his  liberty,  and 
had  him  conveyed  to  the  mansion  of  his  ancestors,  at 
Loyola,  not  far  from  Pampeluna. 

The  dressing  of  his  wounds  having  become  deranged 
during  the  transit  to  the  chateau,  it  became  necessary  to 
break  the  leg  again,  that  it  might  be  properly  set.  A 
second  time  was  this  cruel  operation  performed,  and,  as 
the  result  proved  to  be  an  obtruding  of  the  bone,  which 
the  elegant  courtier  could  not  tolerate,  he  ordered  the 
surgeon  to  saw  off  that  portion  of  one  bone  that  bore 
upon  the  other ;  and  he  underwent  the  torture  without 
evincing  the  least  sign  of  pain. 
« 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  3 

The  nature  of  his  injuries  necessitated  a  long  and  care- 
ful treatment.  In  order  to  employ  his  mind  during  this 
forced  seclusion,  Ignatius  requested  to  be  furnished  with 
some  of  the  romances  of  chivalry.  Ilis  brothers  had, 
in  all  23robability,  taken  them  into  camp,  for  not  a  single 
one  was  to  be  found  in  the  mansion  of  Loyola ;  and  the 
wounded  hero  is  offered  "The  Life  of  Jesus  Christ"  and 
"The  Flowers  of  Sanctity." 

These  works  are  not  much  to  his  taste;  he,  nevertheless, 
glances  at  them,  is  surprised,  reads  again,  reflects,  returns 
again  and  again  to  the  perusal  of  the  pages;  and  grace, 
descending  into  the  recesses  of  that  soul  so  great,  so 
strong,  and  so  generous,  at  once  subjugates  and  trans- 
forms it. 

Ignatius  makes  a  voluntary  sacrifice  to  Almighty  God 
of  all  his  hopes  of  honor  and  glory  in  the  world,  his 
success  at  court,  all  the  earthly  motives  which  could 
attract  or  allure  him.  The  strongest  of  these  was  the 
fond  attachment  he  had  for  his  family,  and  a  truly  ro- 
mantic love  he  entertained  for  a  young  princess,  whose 
colors  he  wore,  and  whose  beauty  he  sustained,  according 
to  the  custom  of  those  days,  sword  in  hand,  and  to  whom 
he  tendered  the  homage  of  all  his  brilliant  deeds.  All, 
all  these  were  sacrificed,  trampled  under  foot.  Ignatius 
was  a  new  man  ! 

In  some  of  the  ancient  chivalric  romances,  he  had  read 
that  the  heroes  of  old  passed  an  entire  night,  clad  in  their 
heavy  armor,  before  receiving  the  sword  and  spurs  which 
constituted  them  knights.  This  was  what  was  called  in 
those  times  the  Vigil  of  Arms.  In  imitation  of  their 
example,  he,  too,  will  pass  the  night  in  prayer,  clad  in  his 
new  armor,  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  Mary,  whose  true  and 
faithful  knight  henceforth  he  is  pledged  to  be.  And  it 
is  with  these  intentions  that  he  has  betaken  himself  to 
the  altar  of  Our  Lady   of    Mont-Serrat,  clad  in  the  tat- 


4  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tered  garments  of  the  poor,  unknown  pilgrim.  Here  he 
keeps  his  Vigil  of  Arms.  He  offers  up  his  fervent  prayers, 
and  devotes  himself,  body  and  soul,  to  the  service  of  the 
Divine  Majesty,  making  a  solemn  vow  henceforth  to  ac- 
knowledge no  other  lord  and  master  than  Jesus,  no  other 
mistress  or  lady  than  Mary,  the  mother  of  God,  and  for- 
ever to  serve  and  defend  them  before  and  against  all,  until 
the  last  day  of  his  life. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  25th,  he  hung  up  his 
sword  and  poniard  against  the  chapel  wall.  He  then  as- 
sisted at  the  Holy  Hacritice,  communicated,  shedding  a 
torrent  of  tears,  and,  after  a  short  thanksgiving,,  left  the 
chapel,  so  as  not  to  be  recognized  by  any  of  the  numerous 
pilgrims  who  had  been  attracted  thither  during  the  feast. 

Henceforth  the  home  of  Ignatius  will  be  the  home  of 
the  poor,  and  his  food  will  be  the  bread  of  indigence. 
He  will  subsist  hereafter  on  privations,  self-abnegation, 
bodily  mortification,  and  humiliations  of  all  sorts. 

He  sets  out  on  foot  for  the  neii>hborino;  town  of  Man-' 
resa,  where  he  begs  for  a  shelter  among  the  poor  of  the 
hospital,  and  becomes,  of  his  own  free  will,  their  servant 
and  nurse.  His  austere  and  penitential  life  soon  wins  for 
him  the  respect  of  the  whole  town ;  his  humility  is 
alarmed,  and  he  seeks  seclusion  from  the  public  admira- 
tion in  a  neighboring  cavern.  He  reached  it  unobserved, 
under  cover  of  the  brambles  and  undergrowth  which  hid 
it  from  public  view.  In  this  cave  or  grotto,  alone  with 
his  God,  and  unobserved  by  mortal  eye,  he  gave  himself 
up  to  a  life  of  penance  and  mortification,  passing  whole 
nights  in  prayer  and  meditation ;  and  here  it  pleased 
Almighty  God  to  communicate  to  his  soul  such  extra- 
ordinary graces,  such  profound  knowledge,  that  the  gal- 
lant young  hero,  though  unenlightened,  as  were  all  those 
whose  fortune  it  was  to  be  attached  to  the  court  in  those 
days,  became  suddenly  possessed  of,  and  inspired  with,  the 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  5 

most  sublime  science,  so  that  he  discoursed  upon  the  f^reat, 
the  unspeakable  mysteries  of  the  Faith,  in  terms  and  with 
a  zeal  that  captivated  and  astounded  the  most  learned  the- 
olo<2:ians. 

It  was  in  this  silent  retreat  that  the  faithful  servant 
of  Jesus  and  Mary  composed,  under  the  inspiration  of 
Heaven,  that  book  of  ^'■Spiritual  JSxercises,^'  which,  St. 
Francis  de  Sales  said,  has  converted  more  sinners  than 
there  were  letters  in  the  whole  volume.  It  was  in  this 
cave,  likewise,  that  the  finger  of  God  imprinted  in  the 
heart  of  Loyola  the  plan  of  that  chosen  society,  which 
He  commanded  him  to  establish  for  the  service  and  greater 
glory  of  the  Divine  Majesty.  This  society  was  to  have 
for  its  chief  and  model,  Jesus  crucified,  and  for  banner, 
his  glorious  cross.  It  was  to  bear  no  other  name  than 
that  of  Jesus;  while  its  motto  was  to  be,  "To  the  greater 
glory  of  Grod." 

In  the  month  of  January,  1523,  Ignatius  embarked 
at  Barcelona  for  Jerusalem,  where  he  arrived  on  the  4th 
of  September  following,  intent  upon  laboring  for  the 
conversion  of  the  Infidels,  and  founding  the  Society  of 
Jesus. 

Such,  however,  was  not  the  decree  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence ;  for  Ignatius,  being  unable  to  obtain  permission  to 
remain  in  Palestine,  was  compelled  to  return  to  Europe. 

Almighty  God  had  filled  his  heart  with  a  burning  zeal 
for  the  salvation  of  souls;  but  he  felt  that,  unacquainted 
as  he  was  with  human  science,  it  was  almost  impossible 
for  him  to  labor  successfully  for  the  sanctification  of  his 
neighbor,  especially  in  those  times  of  religious  disputes, 
when  every  thing  was  made  matter  for  controversy.  Be- 
sides, his  desire  was  to  recruit  faithful  soldiers,  who  should 
compose  the  Society  of  Jesus,  from  among  the  most 
learned  and  enlightened;  and  he  felt  the  impossibility  of 
justly  discriminating  in  this  regard,  unless  he  possessed 


6  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 


I 


ill  himself  that  knowledge  which  he    desired   to  find  \r 
others. 

Arriving  at  Barcelona  in  the  beginning  of  March,  1524, 
being  fully  impressed  with  his  own  deficiency,  Ignatius 
of  Loyola,  although  thirty-three  years  of  age,  placed 
himself  among  a  number  of  mere  children,  in  a  grammar 
class.  In  two  years,  by  his  close  application,  the  barrier 
which  separated  him  from  higher  studies  was  removed, 
and  he  entered  the  class  of  philosophy  at  the  University 
of  Alcala.  The  numerous  conversions  which  resulted 
from  his  frequent  discussions  and  conversations  with  his 
fellow-students,  and  the  abundant  fruits  of  the  spiritual 
exercises,  caused  no  little  jealousy,  and  made  him  many 
enemies.  They  accused  the  new  student  of  spreading  he- 
retical doctrines,  and  he  was  henceforth  prohibited  from 
laboring  for  the  conversion  of  sinners,  or  the  reanimation 
of  the  faith  in  the  lukewarm,  until  he  had  completed  his 
four  years'  study  of  theology.  He  was  compelled  to 
leave  the  University  of  Alcala,  was  not  more  fortunate  at 
Salamanca,  and  finally  proceeded  to  Paris. 

II. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  University  of  Paris  was 
among  the  most  celebrated  in  Europe.  There  were  to  be 
found  the  most  learned  and  erudite  professors ;  young 
men  from  all  parts  of  Europe  thronged  thither,  and 
among  the  students  were  numerous  followers  and  partisans 
of  Luther.  Ignatius  of  Loyola  was  aware  of  all  this, 
and,  impelled  by  Divine  inspiration,  and  with  a  view  to 
complete  his  studies,  he  entered  the  University  of  Paris 
on  the  2d  of  February,  1528. 

From  the  very  first  day  of  his  sojourn  at  the  Univer- 
sity, he  felt  that  at  last  he  had  reached  the  spot  where 
he  was  to  gather  those  disciples  whom  Almighty  God 
had  destined  to  form  the  nucleus  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  \ 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  7 

but,  before  all,  he  was  aware  that  his  first  duty  was  to 
acquire  that  knowledge  which  would  prove  most  attract- 
ive to  them. 

After  resuming  his  classical  studies  at  the  College  of 
Montaigu,  he  entered  upon  his  philosophical  course  at 
that  of  St.  Barbe,  where  he  soon  distin<>;uished  amono- 
the  pupils  a  young  man  whose  mildness  and  solid  piety 
attracted  his  profound  admiration.  It  was  Peter  Le- 
fevre,  (or  Favre),  son  of  an  agriculturist  of  Villaret,  near 
Geneva.  He  had  so  many  amiable  and  attractive  qualities, 
that,  notwithstanding  his  humble  origin,  he  had  become 
the  intimate  and  dear  friend  of  Francis  Xavier,  a  noble- 
man of  Navarre,  passionately  fond  of  literature,  and  who, 
desirous  of  being  admitted  to  the  celebrated  University  of 
Paris,  filled  the  chair  of  Philosophy  at  the  College  of  Beau- 
vais. 

They  had  pursued  their  philosophical  studies  together. 
Peter  was  now  renewing  his,  while  Francis  taught  with 
the  greatest  success.  Nevertheless,  they  occupied  the 
same  apartment  at  St.  Barbe,  and  remained  as  tenderly 
attached  to  each  other  as  two  brothers. 

When  Ignatius  saw  the  distinguished  Navarrene,  he  felt 
that  Almighty  God  had  destined  him  to  become  one  of 
the  first  and  most  illustrious  members  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  But  Francis  Xavier  was  far  from  that  perfection 
to  which  the  chosen  ones  of  God  must  attain.  Ambitious 
in  his  desire  for  scientific  fame,  full  of  self-complacency 
in  the  contemplation  of  the  many  attractions  which  were 
united  in  himself;  proud  of  his  ancestry,  his  great  intelli- 
gence, and  scientific  attainments;  but,  above  all,  being  a 
favorite  at  the  court  of  Francis  Ij  where  he  was  not 
only  sought  for  and  honored,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
received  the  constant  flatteries  of  the  courtiers,  he  was 
much  attached  to  these  worldly  advantages,  and  tenacious 
of  his  position.  To  Ignatius  of  Loyola  all  these  sacri- 
3 


8  HISTORY    OF    TUE    SOCIETY    OE    JESUS. 

fices  were  known  by  experience.  He  was  well  awar(i  how 
much  it  costs  a  man  of  the  world  to  forsake  and  trample 
under  foot  all  that  is  most  dear  to  him  ;  he  was,  there- 
fore, nowise  discouraged,  being  convinced  that  such  a 
soul  as  Xavier's,  once  comprehending  evangelical  perfec- 
tion, would  not  hesitate  to  embrace  it.  But  the  diffi- 
culty he  experienced  was  in  making  him  understand  all 
this.  For  three  whole  years  Ignatius  labored  inces- 
santly and  earnestly  toward  this  end.  He  prayed  fer- 
vently, fasted,  and  mortified  himself  in  every  possible 
way,  to  obtain  from  above  the  gift  of  that  celestial 
flame  which  was  to  enlighten  the  soul  of  Francis 
Xavier. 

The  Divine  light  at  length  shone  forth  :  the  man  of 
elegance,  the  proud  descendant  of  the  kings  of  Navarre, 
was  nothing  more  than  an  humble  volunteer  in  the 
army  of  Christ.  Ignatius  could  now  count  two  recruits 
for  his  holy  militia ;  but  this  did  not  suffice.  Providence 
knew  it;  his  hour  was  at  hand. 

Ignatius,  on  quitting  Spain,  had  left  a  reputation  for 
holiness  and  piety  which  drew  toward  him  other  fol- 
lowers. James  Laynez  d'Almazan,  and  Alphon^us  Sal- 
meron,  of  Toledo,  though  they  had  never  seen  him, 
hastened  to  Paris  with  the  sole  object  of  following  his 
spiritual  direction.  Although  still  in  their  youth,  they 
were  both  distinguished  professors  of  the  University 
of  Alcala.  Simon  Rodriguez,  of  Azevedo,  a  Portuguese, 
and  Nicolas  Alfonso,  surnamed  Bobadilla,  after  the  vil- 
lage of  that  name,  where  he  was  born,  in  like  manner 
enlisted  in   the  ranks  of  Ignatius. 

After  having  tested  their  respective  vocations,  Ig- 
natius, considering  them  equal  to  the  holy  work,  pro- 
posed to  them  to  consecrate  themselves  by  solemn  vows 
to  the  service  and  glory  of  Almighty  God.  They,  with 
one    accord,    eagerly    accepted    the     proposition.      Peter 


ORKJIN    AND    l'\)UM)ATl()N    OF    THK    OIIUKR.  9 

Lef6vre  was   already  in   holy  orders,  while    Ignatius  had 
not  as  yet  completed  his  theological  studies. 

On  the  15th  of  August,  ISiU,  he  called  together  his 
followers,  in  the  subterranean  chapel  of  the  Holy  Martyrs, 
at  Montmartre.  Here  Ijef(ivre  ofi'ered  up  the  holy  sacri- 
fice of  the  mass.  Before  the  holy  communion,  Ignatius, 
together  with  those  of  his  followers  who  had  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  dedicating  themselves  to  the  service 
of  Almighty  God,  bound  themselves  by  vow  to  live 
henceforth  a  life  of  chastity  and  poverty,  and,  as  soon  as 
they  had  completed  their  theology,  to  proceed  to  the 
Holy  Land,  there  to  labor  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Infidels.  They,  at  the  same  time,  agreed,  in  the  event  of 
their  being  unable  to  reach  Palestine  within  one  year, 
to  proceed 'to  Home,  and  there,  placing  themselves  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiif,  to  labor  for  the  glory 
of  Almighty  God  and  the  advancement  of  His  Cliurch. 

The  Society  of  Jesus,  which  had,  as  it  were,  been  bud- 
ding forth  for  twelve  years  in  the  illumined  soul  of  Ig- 
natius, now  burst  forth  gloriously  beneath  the  all-benign 
and  maternal  protection  of  the  Holy  Mother  of  God,  and 
of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  her  Divine  Son. 

The  young  recruits  of  this  glorious  Order — who,  not- 
withstanding their  vow  to  live  and  die  in  voluntary 
poverty,  still  possessed  abundant  riches — had  now  to  strip 
themselves  of  all  their  worldly  possessions.  This  con- 
dition had  already  been  complied  with  by  Peter  Lef^vrc 
in  a  recent  journey  to  Savoy.  With  regard  to  Ignatius 
himself,  he  had  not  disposed  of  his  fortune  before  quit- 
ting Spain ;  and  being  compelled  to  return  thither  for 
that  purpose,  he  undertook  to  dispose  of  the  worldly  pos- 
sessions of  his  three  disciples.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
month  of  March  in  the  following  year,  1535,  he  started 
on  his   journey.     During  his  absence,  his  disciples  were 

complete  their  theological  studies  at  Paris,  which  city 


10  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

H  was  agreed    they  should   quit  on    the    25th  January, 
1537,  and  rejoin  Ignatius  at  Venice. 

In  the  mean  time,  Ignatius,  faithful  to  his  vow  of 
poverty,  made  his  appearance  in  Biscay,  habited  in  his 
gray  tunic,  encircled  by  a  girdle  of  the  same  color.  In 
his  hurailit}',  he  took  up  his  abode  with  the  poor  in  the 
hospital  of  Azpeytia,  and,  notwithstanding  the  incessant 
importunities  of  his  brothers,  he  there  continued  in  the 
practice  of  the  most  austere  virtues,  which  he  had  never, 
since  his  first  conversion,  ceased  to  cultivate.  He  nursed 
the  sick  poor,  instructed  adults  and  children,  converted 
sinners,  gave  spiritual  exercises  or  retreats  to  the  various 
religious  orders  and  the  clergy ;  he  practised  all  sorts 
of  mortifications,  passing  the  greater  part  of  the  night 
in  prayer,  and  wrought  many  miracles. 

After  disposing  of  all  his  property  among  his  relatives 
and  the  poor,  he  bade  adieu  forever  to  his  native  land. 
He  then  devoted  his  time  to  visiting  those  families  whom 
he  had  to  consult  in  his  friends'  interest,  in  order  to 
obtain  their  parents'  consent  to  the  step  that  had  been 
taken,  and  to  dispose  of  their  property.  Those  obliga- 
tions complied  with,  he  embarked  for  Italy,  and  arrived 
at  Venice  on  the  31st  of  December  of  the  same  year, 
1535,  where  he  resumed  the  study  of  theology. 

During  his  absence,  the  disciples  he  had  left  in  Paris 
made  fresh  conquests  for  the  society.  Claude  Lejay,  of 
the  diocese  of  Geneva;  John  Codure,  of  Embrun,  in 
Dauphiny,  and  Pasquier  Brouet,  of  Bethencourt,  in 
Picardy,  all  learned  theologians  of  the  University  of 
Paris,  after  making  a  spiritual  retreat,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Peter  Lefc^vre,  requested  to  be  admitted  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Society. 

War  having  been  declared  between  Francis  I  and 
Charles  V,  and  the  frontiers  being  thronged  with  hos- 
tile soldiery,  the  young  society  was  under  the  necessity 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  11 

of  hastening  its  departure,  and  they  set  out  for  Italy, 
on  foot,  staff  in  hand,  on  the  15th  of  November,  1536, 
and  arrived  at  Venice  on  the  8th  of  January  followino;. 

Toward  the  close  of  Lent,  Ignatius  dispatched  three 
of  his  disciples  to  Rome,  to  beg  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
authority  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Palestine,  and  also  his 
sanction  to  be  ordained  priests  by  whatever  bishop  His 
Holiness  might  be  pleased  to  designate,  under  the  title  of 
voluntary  poverty.  The  disciples,  on  their  arrival  in 
Rome,  were  presented  to  Pope  Paul  III,  by  Don  Pedro 
Ortiz,  ambassador  from  the  court  of  Charles  V.  They 
obtained  what  they  sought,  and  returned  to  Venice,  where 
they  were  ordained  priests  on  the  2-lth  of  June,  by  the 
Bishop  of  Arbe. 

The  Turks  at  this  time  menacing  Italy,  the  Holy  See, 
Charles  V,  and  the  Republic  of  Venice  united,  in  order 
to  repulse  them.  The  Mediterranean  became  crowded 
with  the  enemy's  vessels ;  not  a  single  Italian  ship  could 
essay  a  passage  eastward.  Ignatius  and  his  followers, 
therefore,  devoted  themselves,  with  all  possible  ardor,  to 
the  execution  of  their  apostolic  labors  in  the  towns  of 
Vicenza,  Montselice,  Treviso,  Bassano,  and  Verona,  and 
reaped,  in  every  direction,  the  most  abundant  fruits.  On 
all  sides  sinners  were  converted,  morals  reformed,  and 
the  faith  rekindled. 

Nevertheless,  the  war  continuing  to  rage,  the  year 
passed  away,  and  the  little  band  was  thus  involuntarily 
relieved  from  the  obligations  of  their  vow  to  preach  the 
word  of  God  to  the  Infidels  in  Palestine ;  but  they  still 
had  another  obligation  that  they  could  fulfil,  that  of 
placing  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff. Ignatius,  Lefevre,  and  Laynez  went  tu  Rome;  the 
other  seven  betook  themselves  to  the  most  celebrated 
universities    of    Italy,    with  a  view    of  therein  obtaining 

new  members  to  join  the  society,  but,  above  all,  to  com- 
3* 


12  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

bat  vice  and  repel  heresy.  Previous  to  bidding  his  fol- 
lowers farewell,  on  his  departure  from  Yieenza,  Ignatius 
of  Loyola  called  them  around  him,  and  said  :  "  To  those 
who  ask  us  what  we  are,  we  will  reply,  we  are  soldiers 
of  the  Holy  Church,  enrolled  beneath  the  banners  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  we  form  '  the  Society  of  Jesus.^  "  * 

III. 

The  holy  founder  of  the  Order  proceeded  to  Rome, 
ignorant  of  the  reception  that  awaited  the  society,  whose 
services  he  went  to  tender  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  He 
felt,  nor  could  he  for  a  moment  doubt,  that  the  concep- 
tion of  the  design,  for  the  execution  of  which  he  had  so 
earnestly  and  courageously  labored  during  fifteen  years, 
and  for  which  he  had  sacrificed  so  much,  did  not  origin- 
ate with  him,  but  was  dictated  from  above — that  it  was  a 
Divine  inspiration  ;  but,  at  first,  his  great  humility  re- 
volted against  looking  upon  it  in  this  light. 

Ignatius,  who,  since  his  departure  from  Vicenza.^  had 
prayed  incessantly  for  the  success  of  his  undertaking,  felt, 
on  approaching  his  destination,  a  strong  desire  to  visit  the 
village  of  La  Storta  before  entering  the  Eternal  City,  from 
which  he  was  separated  by  but  a  few  thousand  steps.  On 
entering  the  church  of  that  village,  in  company  with  Lay- 
nez  and  Lef6vre,  he  begged  of  our  Lord  to  direct  him 
aright  in  the  difficult  and  important  mission  which  had  been 
confided  to  his  care. 

While  thus  in  profound  meditation  a.nd  prayer,  he 
is  dazzled  by  a  brilliant   light,  and  beholds    our  Divine 

*Thi9  is  now  the  recognized  name,  in  the  English  language,  for 
the  society  founded  by  St.  Ignatius.  The  word  Compagnia,  in  Ital- 
ian, Co7npagnie  in  French,  would  have  been  more  properly  rendered 
Company ;  for  the  idea  of  the  Saint  was  that  of  a  band  of  soldiers, 
a  company,  bearing  the  special  name  of  their  commander-in- 
chief.— Tr. 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  13 

Saviour  himself,  bearing  His  cross,  and  pointing  to  it  as 
the  emblem  of  suffering  and  humility.  At  the  same  time 
he  sees  the  first  person  of  the  adorable  Trinity,  present- 
ing Ignatius  and  his  companions  to  His  Divine  Son,  to 
whose  all-powerful  protection  He  confides  them,  at  the 
same  moment  pointing  toward  Ignatius,  who  hears  these 
words:  "I  wish  him  to  be  your  faithful  follower."  Then 
our  Divine  Lord,  casting  a  look  of  tenderness  and  love 
on  Ignatius,  replied:  "I  desire  that  thou  wilt  serve  me." 
"When  He  had  uttered  these  fortifying  words,  He  cast  a 
look  full  of  love  upon  the  young  disciples  of  Ignatius, 
saying,  "I  will  befriend  you  at  Rome." 

Ignatius  quitted  the  church,  his  countenance  beaming 
with  gladness,  and  his  eyes  streaming  forth  tears  of  holy 
joy.  Turning  to  Lef^vre  and  Laynez,  he  observed:  "I 
know  not  what  sort  of  reception  awaits  us  at  Rome.  We 
may  be  subjected  to  many  persecutions;  but  of  this  I  am 
sure,  that  our  Divine  Lord  will  be  with  us  and  aid  us ; 
let  us,  then,  not  be  downcast."  He  then  related  the  vi- 
sion he  had  just  been  permitted  to  witness.  The  entire 
history  of  the  Order  is  but  the  development  and  realiza- 
tion of  that  prophetic  vision.  On  the  evening  of  the 
same  day,  toward  the  end  of  the  month  of  November, 
1537,  the  three  travellers  entered  the  Eternal  City. 

At  an  epoch  when  the  heretical  teachings  of  Luther 
had  aroused,  on  all  sides,  a  spirit  of  revolt  against  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  the  Pontiff  was, 
doubtless,  nowise  loath  to  receive  these  men,  who  came  to 
dedicate  their  scientific  learning,  their  great  talents,  their 
burning  zeal,  and  indefatigable  devotion  to  the  support 
of  his  power  and  the  defense  of  the  Church.  Paul  III, 
who  could  well  appreciate  such  offers,  at  such  a  time,  at 
once  accepted  their  proffered  services.  He  confided  to 
James  Laynez  a  professorship  at  the  College  of  La  Sa- 
pienza;   to   Lef^vre   was    assigned   the    expounding   of   the 


14  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Holy  Scriptures,  while  to  Ignatius  Loyola  was  intrusted 
the  task  of  reforming  the  morals  of  the  people  of  Rome: 
this  was,  of  all,  the  task  the  most  diflficult  and  important, 
as  at  that  time  the  people  were  much  demoralized,  and  in- 
dulo;ed   in  the  most  frightful.  excessoH. 

Ignatius  commenced  his  mission  by  preaching  not  only 
in  the  churches  throughout  the  city,  but  in  the  streets 
and  market-places.  x\t  first,  the  people  who  crowded 
around  to  hear  him,  ridiculed  him  for  the  broken  accent 
in  which  he  enunciated  the  Italian,  and  for  the  simplicity 
of  his  style  ;  but,  ere  long,  won  over  by  his  goodness,  and 
convinced  by  the  simple  truths  that  flowed  from  his  lips, 
their  hearts  were  touched  ;  they  threw  themselves  at  his 
feet,  and  were  converted  !  In  fact,  unable  to  satisfy  the 
numbers  that  crowded  around  him,  he  found  himself 
compelled  to  summon  his  disciples  from  the  principal 
cities  in  Italy,  and  they  accordingly  joined  Ignatius  at 
Rome,  toward  the  close  of  the  month  of  March,  1538. 

At  this  period  new  and  vast  regions  of  territory  had  been 
discovered  and  conquered  by  the  Spaniards  in  America, 
9nd  by  the  Portuguese  in  Asia.  Ignatius  of  Loyola 
burned  with  desire  to  evangelize  those  distant  nations,  and 
reclaim  them  from  their  fearful  barbarism.  At  the  same 
time  he  longed  to  wrestle  with  the  many  heresies  which 
then  beset  Europe  on  all  sides.  He  wished  to  revivify 
the  faith  in  the  souls  of  men,  and  to  reestablish  those 
principles  of  submission  and  discipline  which  alone  can 
insure  obedience  to  legitimate  authority;  in  fine,  he  sought 
to  reform  the  monastic  orders,  and  reanimate  the  priest- 
hood with  a  holy  fervor.  Hence,  he  wished  his  society  to 
devote  themselves  to  distant  missions,  beyond  the  seas; 
yield  an  implicit  obedience  to  the  Holy  See  in  all  things, 
holding  themselves  ready,  at  a  word,  to  go  to  the  end  of 
the  world;  strive  to  acquire  the  knowledge  necessary  to 
the    successful    refutation   of   all    heresy;    devote    them- 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  15 

selves  to  the  education  and  training  of  the  young,  and 
thus  to  ameliorate  and  advance  future  generations;  and, 
lastly,  that  each  member  of  the  society  should  labor  in- 
cessantly for  his  own  perfection,  in  order  the  better  to 
labor  for  the  sanctification  of  others. 

The  plan  of  the  holy  founder  was  as  vast  as  the  world. 
The  time  had  come  to  make  it  known  to  his  disciples. 
He  called  them  all  together,  and  pointed  out  to  them  the 
immense  field  open  to  their  labors,  wherein  they  could  ex- 
ercise their  talents  and  zeal  for  the  advancement  of  re- 
ligion and  the  glory  of  our  Holy  Church.  He  first  urged 
upon  them  the  importance  of  selecting  a  Superior,  in 
whom  they  had  full  confidence,  so  that,  when  far  removed 
from  each  other,  in  distant  countries,  they  should  continue 
to  be,  as  it  were,  but  one  undivided  body,  having  only  a 
single  mind  in  complying  with  the  mandates  of  their  Su- 
perior at  home.  He  also  intimated  to  them  his  desire  of 
submitting  the  project  for  the  formation  of  the  society  to 
the  Holy  See,  and  that  it  should  be  established  as  a  relig- 
ious order;  and,  finally,  he  desired  that  they  should  all 
pray  to  Almighty  God,  during  three  days,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain from  Him  that  enliahtenment  and  those  graces  so 
necessary  to  the  perfect  forming  of  a  society  of  such  vast 
importance  and  magnitude. 

Ignatius  having  committed  to  writing  his  plan  of 
thorough  organization,  and  submitted  it  to  his  disciples, 
they  entirely  approved  of  it,  and  proceeded  at  once  to 
elect  a  Superior.  All,  with  one  accord,  voted  for  Ignatius, 
thus  recording  their  admiration  for  and  confidence  in  him 
whose  pure  and  generous  mind  first  conceived  the  idea  of 
forming  a  society  which  was  destined  to  accomplish  so 
much  for  the  sanctification  and  salvation  of  souls. 

The  Pope,  however,  being  at  this  time  absent,  they  were 
unable  to  proceed  further  with  the  great  work,  and  im- 
patiently awaited  his  return.     During  the  interim,  the  new 


16  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

apostles  exercised  their  holy  functions  in  the  capital  of 
the  Christian  world,  and  it  pleased  Almighty  God  to 
crown  their  labors  with  the  most  edifying  success.  Igna- 
tius himself  preached  in  the  Spanish  language,  at  the 
Church  of  Our  Lady  of  Mont-Serrat.  The  others 
pre.-iched  in  Italian  :  Lefevre  and  Xavier,  at  St.  Lorenzo- 
in-Damaso;  Lejay,  at  St.  Louis-des-Fran9ais ;  Laynez,  at  St. 
Saviour-in-Lauro;  Salmeron,  at  St.  Lucy's;  Rodriguez,  at 
St.  Angelo-nel-la-Pescheria ;  and  Bobadilla,  at  St.  Celsus. 
In  addition  to  his  chair  at  La  Sapienza,  and  to  his  ser- 
mons and  confessions,  Laynez  was  directed  by  Cardinal 
Savelli  to  visit  the  various  parishes  of  Rome,  with  a  view 
to  reform  any  abuses  that  might  be  therein  found. 

While  these  ten  apostles  thus  incessantly  labored  for 
the  advancement  of  the  greater  honor  and  glory  of  God, 
in  the  Eternal  City,  a  Brother  Augustine,  of  the  Order  of 
the  Hermits  of  St.  Augustine,  was  likewise  preaching  to 
the  people.  Although  he  was  much  applauded  by  those 
who  thronged  to  listen  to  him,  it  was  found  that  the  fruits 
of  his  sermons  fell  materially  short  of  the  popularity  he 
had  acquired  as  an  orator;  for,  while  his  essays  were  brill- 
iant and  affecting,  it  was  soon  found  that  there  lurked 
beneath  these  attractive  qualities  the  pernicious  venom  of 
heresy.  All  listened  with  admiration  and  astonishment; 
but  when  the  more  thinking  portion  of  his  hearers  came 
to  investigate  the  tenets  advocated,  they  were  not  slow 
in  discovering  that  the  eloquent  and  plausible  preacher 
was  insidiously  promulgating  the  heretical  doctrines  of 
Luther.  Ignatius  is  soon  informed  of  the  fact.  Laynez 
and  Salmeron,  in  order  to  judge  for  themselves,  go  to  hear 
the  celebrated  orator,  through  whose  wily  logic  and  win- 
ning manners  they  are  not  slow  in  discerning  the  deadly 
venom  of  heresy.  Ignatius,  with  all  the  kindness  and 
consideration  that  charity  could  dictate,  cautions  the  de- 
luded  hermit  to   desist   from   his   dangerous  and   wicked 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  17 

course.  Brother  AuGjustine,  however,  received  these  gentle 
admonitions  in  a  very  different  spirit  from  that  with  which 
they  were  given.  He  became  infuriated  ;  but,  dreading 
the  action  of  the  Inquisition,  and,  in  order  to  escape  the 
punishment  which  he  felt  he  had  incurred,  he  hud  the 
temerity  to  denounce  from  his  pulpit  Ignatius  and  his 
priests  as  the  real  introducers  of  the  heretical  doctrines 
which  they  had  accused  him  of  promulgating.  He  had 
the  audacity  to  go  further,  and  assert  that  he  could  ad- 
duce the  most  positive  proof  that  the  sole  object  of  Igna- 
tius and  his  followers  was  the  perversion  of  the  faith. 

At  first  the  populace  blindly  believed  these  calumnious 
and  bold  assertions,  put  forth  from  the  pulpit,  whence 
should  have  emanated  nought  but  Gospel  truth  itself,  and 
these,  too,  uttered  against  holy  priests,  who,  but  a  few  days 
before,  had  been  venerated  and  respected  by  the  very  same 
people  who  now  regarded  them  not  only  witK  distrust,  but 
even  with  loathing. 

But  the  noble  little  band  was  not  to  be  so  easily  cast 
down.  Our  Divine  Lord  Himself,  the  chosen  Master,  of 
whom  they  were  the  adopted  sons,  in  pointing  out  to 
Ignatius,  in  the  holy  vision  with  which  he  had  been  fa- 
vored, the  Cross,  the  emblem  of  salvation,  had  promised 
His  all-powerful  assistance  to  the  newly-created  Order; 
and  they,  one  and  all,  well  knowing  and  feeling  that  Al- 
mighty God  is  ever  faithful  to  His  promises,  wavered  not, 
but  had  full  confidence  and  faith.  Ignatius,  meeting  his 
companions,  said  to  them  :  '^  You  are  quite  right  in  main- 
taining your  self-control  and  presence  of  mind;  but,  if 
we  are  destined  to  accomplish  the  great  work  in  which 
we  have  embarked,  we  must  not  only  labor,  but  maintain 
our  reputation  unsullied;  for,  unless  we  do  so,  we  can  ac- 
complish nothing.  Hence  it  is  incompatible  with  the  end 
we  have  in  view  to  remain  under  the  ban  of  the  infamous 
slanders  that  have  been  hurled  against  us ;   and,  in  order 


18  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

that  the  greater  honor  and  glory  of  Almighty  God  may 
be  advanced,  it  is  our  bounden  duty  to  seek  our  justifi- 
cation." 

Four  Spaniards,  avowed  enemies  of  the  holy  founder 
of  the  Order,  bribed  by  the  aforesaid  Brother  Augustine, 
declared  that  they  knew,  of  their  own  certain  knowledge, 
that  Ignatius  had  been  burnt  in  effigy  in  the  cities  of 
Alcala,  Paris,,  and  Venice,  for  sorcery  and  heresy.  One 
of  these,  named  Miuuel  Navarro,  went  so  far  as  to  assert 
that  he  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  proceeding,  and  that 
he  was  prepared  to  produce  proof  of  what  he  asserted. 

Ignatius  then  sought  an  interview  with  Benedetto  Con- 
versini.  Bishop  of  Bertinoro,  then  Grovernor  of  Rome,  of 
whom  he  requested  that  he  might  be  confronted  with  his 
calumniators  and  accusers.  It  was  not  denied  that  Igna- 
tius had  been  denounced  in  the  cities  named,  but  he  had 
not  only  refuted  the  accusations  preferred  against  him, 
but  his  innocence  had  been  widely  and  publicly  pro- 
claimed. Not  only  was  this  the  fact,  but,  by  a  providen- 
tial coincidence,  it  so  happened  that  the  very  persons  be- 
fore whom  he  had  been  arraigned  were  at  the  very  time 
in  Rome.  These  were  Don  Juan  de  Figueroa,  Vicar- 
general  of  Alcala  ;  Mateo  Ori,  Grand  Judge  of  the  In- 
quisition ;  and  Gaspar  de  Doctis,  Assessor  to  the  Nuncio 
at  Venice.  All  these  testified  in  favor  of  the  holy  apos- 
tle. In  like  manner,  from  the  various  places  in  Italy, 
where  Ignatius  and  his  disciples  had  preached  to  the 
people,  poured  in  the  strongest  protestations  against  the 
infamous  and  cruel  calumnies  that  had  been  spread 
against  them  and  the  doctrines  they  had  preached. 
Nobles  and  people,  with  one  accord,  bore  willing  testi- 
mony to  the  virtues  and  holiness  of  Ignatius  and  his  fol- 
lowers. At  length  his  enemies,  filled  with  remorse  and 
self-condemnation,  were  abashed,  and  acknowledged  them- 
selves guilty  of  the  falsehoods  imputed  to  them.    Brother 


ORIGIN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  19 

Augustine  himself*  not  only  openly  avowed  that  he  was  a 
Lutheran,  but  his  accomplices  were  tried,  found  guilty, 
and  condemned. 

But  it  w^as  the  Divine  will  that  these  new  disciples, 
who  had  devoted  their  labors  to  the  further  advancement 
of  the  Church  of  God,  should  shine  forth  in  still  more 
resplendent  brilliancy. 

The  winter  of  the  year  1538  was  unprecedentedly  se- 
vere at  Rome :  besides  the  suffering  thus  caused,  a  fam- 
ine followed.  The  poor  were  to  be  seen  wending  their 
way  in  every  direction  through  the  city,  in  anticipation  of 
that  death  to  which  they  were  certainly  destined.  So 
downcast  and  dejected  were  they,  that  they  had  not  the 
moral  courage  or  energy  to  seek  the  aid  and  assistance 
they  so  much  needed.  Ignatius  and  his  followers,  al- 
though themselves  sustained  by  the  bread  of  indigence, 
on  witnessing  so  much  suffering  around  them,  are  un- 
mindful of  their  self-imposed  poverty,  or,  rather,  they 
feel  that  Almighty  God  ever  showers  down  His  choicest 
blessings  upon  those  who  with  confidence  place  their 
whole  hope  and  reliance  on  Him. 

The  good  Fathers  went  about  the  streets  of  the  city, 
collecting  the  dead,  upon  whom  they  bestowed  Christian 
burial,  and  offered  up  the  holy  sacrifice  and  prayers  for 
their  eternal  welfare,  while  the  diseased  and  dying  they 
conveyed  to  their  holy  and  peaceful  retreat,  where  they 
bestowed  upon  them  all  the  care  and  attention  that  hu- 
manity and  piety  could  dictate.  By  these  means  they 
collected  in  their  humble  dwelling  more  than  four  thou- 
sand of  the  poorest  and  most  destitute.  The  wealthiest 
nobles  of  the  city  were  struck  with  amazement  on  behold- 
ing so  much  pure  and  disinterested  charity.  They  vis- 
ited the  good  Fathers,  whom  they  followed  to  their  hum- 
ble homes,  in  the  greatest  admiration  of  their  good 
deeds,  but  for  which  thousands  would  have  perished,  in 
4 


20  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  very  streets  of  Rome,  from  sheer  want  and  disease. 
Such  an  effect  had  this  holy  example  upon  the  wealthy 
and  the  great,  that  they  vied  with  each  other  in  affording 
assistance  to  their  less  fortunate  fellow-creatures  ;  and 
even  before  leaving  the  poor  retreat  of  the  humble  apos- 
tles, they  devoted  some  part  of  their  worldly  possessions 
to  the  benefit  of  the  unfortunate  sufferers  from  famine 
and  sickness.  One  would  lay  down  so  much  in  money, 
while  others  of  the  admiring  crowd  handed  in  the  rich 
and  costly  jewels  with  which  their  persons  were  adorned, 
and  some  even  gave  a  part  of  their  clothing.  Thus  it 
was  that  the  very  men  who  had  lent  such  a  willing  ear 
to  the  vile  calumnies  so  cruelly  and  wickedly  promul- 
gated by  designing  and  bad  men,  became  all  at  once 
the  greatest  admirers  of  those  whom  they  had  wronged  ; 
for  they  felt  that  they  had  Been  the  true  benefactors  of 
the  people,  in  the  time,  of  their  direst  necessity.  The 
latter,  in  their  turn,  followed  the  zealous  priests  through 
the  streets  of  Rome,  expressing  their  gratitude  and  offer- 
ing them  many  marks  of  homage  and  admiration. 

At  length  the  Holy  Father  returned  to  Rome,  and  Ig- 
natius lost  no  time  in  submitting  to  him,  through  Cardinal 
Contarini,  the  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  society. 
On  examining  it,  the  Pope,  who  was  manifestly  struck 
with  the  sublimity  of  the  idea,  exclaimed  :  "  The  finger 
of  God  is  here  !"  .  Forthwith  he  appointed  a  commission 
of  three  cardinals  thoroughly  to  examine  the  merits  of 
the  proposed  institution;  but  one  of  the  commission,  Car- 
dinal Guidiccioni,  the  President,  opposed  the  formation 
of  a  new  religious  order,  and  would  not  even  deign  to 
give  any  consideration  to  the  proposition  to  establish  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 

At  the  same  time,  many  bishops,  who  had  been  struck 
with  admiration  at  the  untiring  zeal  and  heroic  humility 
of  the  ten  missionaries,  sought,  by  every  means  in  their 


ORIGIN  AND   FOUNDATION  OF  THE  ORDER.  21 

power,  to  encourage  them  in  their  labors.  Upon  the  earn- 
est solicitation  of  Cardinal  St.  Angelo,  the  Pope,  with 
the  concurrence  of  Ignatius,  permitted  Fathers  Laynez 
and  Lefevre  to  accompany  him  in  a  mission  to  Parma, 
whither  he  proceeded  for  the  purpose  of  refuting  more 
effectually  the  dangerous  heresies  with  which  that  city 
was  menaced.  Laynez  and  Lefevre  were  soon  at  their 
holy  work.  They  preached  in  the  churches  throughout 
the  city,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  good  fruits  of 
their  labors  were  seen  ;  religion  and  true  piety  were  once 
more  revived  throuuhout  Parma.  The  wealthiest  and 
most  distinguished  men  of  the  city  flocked  in  great  num- 
bers to  the  spiritual  retreats,  and  soon  their  hitherto 
loose  habits  and  tepidity  were  reformed.  Noble  ladies, 
of  the  highest  rank  and  fashion,  were  induced  to  lead  a 
life  of  self-denial,  and  to  do  many  wonderful  works  of 
charity.  The  clergy,  in  like  manner,  animated  by  the 
edifying  example  of  their  flocks,  soon  felt  themselves  in 
need  of  reform.  It  was  not  long  before  they,  in  their 
turn,  followed  the  example  set  them,  and  once  more  they 
returned  to  a  life  of  self-denial,  and  the  practice  of  those 
holy  works  so  edifying  and  necessary  in  those  who  exer- 
cised, as  they  did,  the  holy  functions  of  a  priest ;  in  fact, 
so  great  was  the  happy  change  that  had  been  effected  in 
the  morals  and  habits  of  all,  that  the  Parma  of  old  was 
scarcely  recognizable. 

The  Pope  also  sent  Bobadilla  to  the  island  of  Ischia, 
to  quell  the  strifes  and  dissensions  that  unhappily  existed 
at  the  time  among  the  inhabitants.  So  successfully  did 
he  accomplish  his  mission  of  pacification,  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  island  were  loth  to  part  from  him. 

Lejay  was  ordered  to  Brescia,  there  to  combat  and  re- 
fute the  Lutheran  heresies.  To  Pasquier  Brouet  was 
confided  the  task  of  reforming  the  abuses  which  had  crept 
into  one  of  the  religious  houses  at  Sienna;  while  Rodri- 


22  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

guez  and  Xavier,  at  the  request  of  Jolm  III,  took  tlieir 
departure  for  Portugal,  thence  to  embark  for  India. 

From  every  direction  where  these  holy  missionaries 
labored  for  the  advancement  of  religion  and  the  glory  of 
Almighty  God,  arose  a  unanimous  voice  of  praise  and 
admiration,  which  spread  throughout  Italy,  and  all  over 
Europe.  At  length,  struck  by  the  reports  of  the  won- 
derful effects  of  the  labors  and  preaching  of  the  new  so- 
ciety, the  heart  of  Cardinal  Guidiccioni  is  touched;  he 
examines  the  plan  which  he  had  refused  to  see ;  he  ad- 
mires it,  and,  like  Paul  III,  recognizes  therein  the  finger 
of  God.  He  goes  to  the  Pope,  and  declares  that,  although 
his  sentiments  are  unchanged  in  regard  to  the  formation  of 
new  religious  orders,  he  is  forced  to  make  an  exception 
in  favor  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  "  It  appears  that  this 
society  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  eradication  of  those 
abuses  with  which  the  Church  is  afflicted." 

All  opposition  to  the  formation  of  the  society  being 
now  at  an  end,  Pope  Paul  III,  by  a  bull,  bearing  date 
September  27,  1540,  formally  established  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  as  a  religious  order,  and  this,  contrary  to  all  prece- 
dent, he  did  before  being  cognizant  of  the  laws  by  which 
it  was  to  be  governed,  leaving  all  to  the  judgment  and  dis- 
cretion  of  him  whom  it  had  pleased  Heaven  to  inspire  with 
the  sublime  idea  of  founding  so  glorious  an  order.  Up  to 
this  time  the  society  had  no  written  laws,  but  the  Holy 
Father  felt  that  the  obedience  it  promised  to  his  authority 
was  a  sufficient  guarantee.  By  the  conditions  of  the  bull, 
the  number  of  members  was  not  to  exceed  sixty.  It  was 
not  long,  however,  before  this  restriction  was  removed,  for 
it  became  evident  that  the  new  society,  enlisted  under  the 
banner  of  Jesus,  was  destined  not  only  to  combat  the 
enemies  of  the  Church,  but  daily  to  augment  the  number 
of  her  followers.  Its  ranks,  therefore,  had  to  be  re- 
cruited, so  as  to  increase  their  numbers  until  they  should 


ORIGIN  AND  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  ORDER.  23 

form  a  phalanx  that  would  strike  terror  into  the  enemies' 
of  the  Church. 

As  every  organized  body  must  needs  have  a  leader,  or 
general,  it  now  became  necessary  for  the  society  to  choose 
its  head.  Few  of  the  members  were  at  this  time  at  Rome. 
Xavier  and  Rodriguez  were  in  Portugal ;  but,  prior  to 
their  departure,  they  had  placed  in  the  hands  of  Father 
Laynez  a  sealed  document  in  favor  of  Ignatius,  with  a 
request  that  it  should  not  be  opened  until  the  day  ap- 
pointed for  the  election,  Lefevre  had  left  Parma  by 
direction  of  the  Pope,  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  and 
defending  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  in  a  controversy 
then  being  carried  on  between  Catholics  and  Protestants, 
at  the  Diet  of  Worms.  The  inhabitants  of  Ischia  had 
obtained  from  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  a  promise  that  Father 
Bobadilla  should  not  be  removed  from  among  them. 
The  good  Father,  on  the  other  hand,  asked  leave  to  take 
part  in  the  election  of  a  Superior  of  the  Order,  and  so 
much  time  was  occupied  in  this  friendly  controversy, 
that  his  vote,  after  all,  arrived  too  late.  Lefevre's  vote 
had  been  forwarded  from  Worms  to  Father  Laynez. 

Ignatius  of  Loyola,  James  Laynez,  Claude  Lejay,  Pas- 
quier  Brouet,  John  Codure,  and  Alphonsus  Salmeron 
were  the  only  members  actually  present  at  Rome  when 
the  election  took  place.  Prior  to  the  event,  they  spent 
three  days  in  prayer,  fasting,  and  mortification,  in  order 
that  they  might  be  directed  in  their  choice  by  the  Divine 
will  of  God.  On  the  fourth  day  each  presented  his  vote 
in  writing,  toii:ether  with  those  of  the  absent  members. 
On  counting  the  ballots,  it  was  discovered  that  all,  with 
the  exception  of  the  founder  himself,  had  cast  their  votes 
for  Ignatius.  He,  in  his  humility,  could  not  be  prevailed 
upon  to  accept  the  dignity  of  this  high  ofiice,  and  to  as- 
sume that  authority  which  he  well  knew  to  be  so  neces« 
sary  for  properly  governing  the  society.  His  plea  for 
4* 


24  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"refusing  was,  that  he  could  not  see  that  he  possessed  one 
of  the  qualities  or  virtues  so  essential  for  exercising  the 
duties  of  such  an  exalted  position  ;  and,  at  his  earnest  so- 
licitation, a  second  election  took  place,  with  precisely  the 
same  result  as  the  first.  Ignatius,  on  being  informed  of 
the  fact,  with  tears  implored  his  brethren  to  excuse  him ; 
but  Father  Laynez  arose  in  the  assembly,  and  addressing 
Ignatius  in  a  tone  of  authority,  said:  "Father,  accept  the 
position  to  which  you  have  been  chosen,  or  our  society 
will  be  dissolved ;  for,  in  the  name  of  all,  I  declare  that 
we  are  resolved  to  acknowledge  no  other  Superior  than 
the  one  whom  God  Himself  hath  selected."  Ignatius  was, 
therefore,  constrained  to  submit  to  the  decision,  althouo-h 
so  little  in  accordance  with  his  feelings  of  humility. 
Nevertheless,  he  did  not  finally  enter  upon  the  duties  of 
his  new  position,  nor,  indeed,  agree  to  do  so,  until  he  had 
made  a  retreat  of  three  days  in  the  Franciscan  Monas- 
tery of  St.  Peter  di  Montorio,  and  at  last  yielded,  under 
the  direction  and  by  the  express  command  of  his  con- 
fessor. 

The  second  election  took  place  on  Holy  Thursday, 
April  14,  1541,  and  Ignatius  was  finally  installed  on 
Easter  Tuesday,  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  at  which 
time  he  was  about  fifty  years  of  age. 

On  the  Friday  following,  the  little  society  made  visits 
to  the  seven  privileged  churches,  concluding  with  that 
of  St.  Paul,  outside  the  walls,  where  the  holy  sacrifice  of 
the  mass  was  ofi"ered  up  by  the  General  of  the  Order,  at 
the  altar  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Fathers,  who  knelt  around  the  sanctuary.  Among  the 
numerous  attendants  on  the  occasion  could  be  seen  many 
who  were  distinguished  for  their  profound  erudition  and 
high  order  of  talents:  youths  of  the  noblest  families,  not 
only  of  Italy,  but  of  Spain  and  Portugal;  priests  renowned 
for  eloquence,  and  revered  for  their  distinguished  virtues. 


ORiaiN    AND    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    ORDER.  25 

All  had  taken  part  in  the  spiritual  exercises  which  had 
been  conducted  by  the  Fathers,  feeling  that  they  had 
been  called  by  God  for  his  especial  service  in  the  society, 
and  longing  for  the  time  when  they,  too,  might  be  ad- 
mitted as  members.  Before  the  communion  the  Father- 
General  turned  toward  those  who  were  present,  holding 
in  one  hand  the  adorable  body  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in 
the  other  the  form  of  the  vows,  which  he  read  in  a  loud 
voice,  so  as  to  be  heard  by  all,  after  which  he  received 
the  holy  communion.  Again  turning  toward  the  attend- 
ants, he  held  the  paten,  on  which  were  deposited  five  sa- 
cred hosts,  and  each  one  of  the  Fathers  separately  repeated, 
in  a  distinct  and  audible  voice,  the  formula  of  the  vow, 
and  received  from  the  hands  of  his  Superior  the  holy 
communion.  Thus  was  completed  the  founding  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.* 

The  house  occupied  by  the  society  at  the  time  of  its 
foundation  was  called  Melangolo,  and  was  situated  in  the 
Piazza  Morgana,  near  St.  Catharine  dei  Fanari. 

^Onl}'  a  brief  account  is  here  given  of  the  institution  of  the  so- 
ciety. More  detailed  and  interesting  particulars  will  be  found  in 
the  Life  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola. 


26  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESU3. 


(Smerals^ip  0f  Bl  Ignatius  0f  fapk* 

154.1  — 1556. 


Immediately  contiguous  to  the  Melangolo  were  some 
extensive  buildinss,  where  a  novitiate  had  been  established, 
and  into  which,  on  the  very  day  of  the  foundation  of  the 
society,  twelve  members  were  admitted,  who  had,  for  a 
long  time  beforehand,  been  duly  instructed  under  the  zeal- 
ous care  and  direction  of  the  Fathers.  Of  the  newly- 
admitted  members,  the  first  was  Don  x\ntonio,  of  Araoz, 
nephew  of  the  holy  founder.  There  were  many  other  as- 
pirants for  admission  into  the  society,  but  they  had  to 
bide  their  time.  As  has  been  stated,  the  General  had 
but  five  professed  members  at  Rome.  These  were  totally 
insufficient  for  the  necessities  of  the  house,  and  he  was 
considering  the  propriety  of  recalling  at  least  one  of  the 
absentees.  While  thus  determining,  he  was  unexpectedly 
summoned  to  the  Vatican,  the  Pope  being  desirous  of 
conferring  with  him  without  delay.  Ignatius  lost  not  a 
moment  in  responding  to  the  summons. 

On  meeting  him.  His  Holiness  was  deeply  afiected, 
even  to  tears,  and  addressed  him  in  a  tremulous  voice. 
Heart-rendins:  details  had  just  been  received  at  the  Vati- 
can,  through  Robert,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  of  the 
cruel  persecutions  sustained  by  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
at  the  hands  of  Henry  VIII,  King  of  England,  in 
which  the  victims  of  the  tyranny  of  that  cruel  monarch 
were  counted    by  thousands.     Sympathizing  deeply  with 


GENERALSHIP   OF    ST.    IGNATIUS   OF    LOYOLA.  27 

those  heroic  Christians,  who,  hesitating  not  to  sacrifice 
all  for  their  faith,  were  willing  to  lay  down  their  lives 
in  its  defense,  with  a  heroic  courage  worthy  the  primi- 
tive martyrs,  the  Pope,  as  the  common  Father  of  Chris- 
tianity, was  desirous  of  affording  to  this  persecuted  people 
some  consolation  and  encouragement.  For  this  purpose 
it  was  deemed  desirable  to  send  amonor  them  two  leiiates, 
in  whom  should  be  vested  such  authority  as  the  exigencies 
of  the  circumstances  called  for — two  apostles,  whose  zeal 
would  equal  their  learning,  and  whose  self-denial  and  in- 
trepidity would  far  surpass  the  difficulties  they  would 
have  to  overcome,  and  defeat  the  dangers  with  which 
they  were  sure  to  be  assailed.  Where  could  such  apostles 
be  found  better  than  in  the  Society  of  Jesus  ?  And  with 
this  feeling  it  was  that  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  had  recourse, 
in  the  hour  of  need,  to  that  society. 

Ignatius  of  Loyola,  deeply  afi'ected  by  the  heart-rend- 
ing account  he  had  heard,  and  regardless  of  the  urgent 
necessities  of  his  own  house  and  novitiate,  immediately 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Holy  Father  two  of  his  co- 
laborers.  Fathers  Codure  and  Brouet.  While  the  neces- 
sary instructions  and  documents  were  being  prepared  at 
the  Vatican,  Father  Codure  died,  and  Father  Salmeron 
was  selected  to  take  his  place  in  the  proposed  embassy. 
The  titles  and  dignities  appertaining  to  the  high  office 
of  Apostolical  Legate  in  nowise  affected  the  habitual 
humility  and  self-denial  of  the  two  holy  men:  they 
would  take  their  departure  on  foot,  staff  in  hand  ;  a 
dependence  upon  the  charity  of  the  world  being  their 
only  purse,  and  the  breviary,  and  full  confidence  in  God, 
their  only  outfit. 

It  was  a  novel  sight  in  Rome  to  witness  the  departure 
of  two  such  humble  individuals  in  such  a  high  diplo- 
matic capacity  as  that  of  envoys  from  the  Holy  See 
to  a  foreign  court ;    for  the  two  Jesuits  were  to  proceed 


28  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

to  the  court  of  James  Y,  of  Scotland,  previous  to  visit- 
ing Ireland,  there  to  console  and  strengthen  the  perse- 
cuted Catholics.  Amono:  those  who  desired  to  enter 
the  order  was  Francesco  Zapata,  Notary  Apostolic,  who 
pointed  out  to  the  Father-General  that  the  voyage  of  the 
envoys  would  be  dangerous  in  consequence  of  the  existing 
critical  state  of  affairs,  and  that  it  would  be  more  advis- 
able to  pay  whatever  might  be  required  for  their  convey- 
ance by  sea,  the  better  to  avoid  suspicion;  and  he  offered 
himself  to  defray  the  entire  expenses  of  the  voyage,  so- 
liciting at  the  same  time  permission  to  accompany  the 
two  Fathers,  and  to  share  their  labors  and  their  dangers. 
This  favor  was  granted  him,  and  thus  he  entered  upon 
his  novitiate. 

Ignatius  of  Loyola  did  not  trouble  himself  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  confidential  instructions  given  to  the  two 
nuncios  by  the  Holy  See  ;  his  only  solicitude  was  that 
his  brethren  should  faithfully  preserve  the  spirit  of  the 
society,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  proved  themselves 
worthy  of  the  high  and  important  mission  with  which 
they  had  been  intrusted.  In  order  to  aid  them  in  at- 
taining this  double  end,  he  gave  them  his  written  advice, 
which  was  worded  with  admirable  wisdom  and  ability.* 
The  two  legates,  accompanied  by  Francesco  Zapata,  com- 
menced their  journey  on  foot,  on  the  10th  September, 
154:1, f  their  great  mark  of  distinction  being  their  extreme 
humility  and  evangelical  poverty. 

Thanks  to  Divine  Providence,  who  watched  over  and 
protected  them,  the  holy  trio  reached  Scotland  in  safety. 
James  V,  who  expected  them,  gave  them  a  reception 
becoming    their    high    mission.     He   pledged    himself  to 

*This  document  will  be  found  in  the  published  history  of  St. 
Ignatius  of  Loyola. 

t  This  date  is  stated  by  Father  Genelli  to  be  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember. 


GENERALSHIP   OP   ST.    IGNATIUS   OP    LOYOLA.  29 

remain  true  to  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  and  pUiced  at 
their  disposal  the  necessary  means  for  proceeding  to  Ire- 
hmd. 

Deprived  of  their  pastors,  and  having  no  priests  to 
preach  to  them  the  Word  of  God,  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, to  enable  them  to  bear  up  against  the  troubles  of 
life,  or  to  prepare  them  for  death,  the  Irish  people  at  this 
time  groaned  beneath  the  weight  of  a  persecution  the  most 
cruel  and  oppressive  ;  yet,  with  all  this,  and  although  lit- 
erally deprived  of  all  spiritual  succor,  they  fearlessly  and 
gloriously  preserved  their  faith.  The  ambassadors  of  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  knowing  how  matters  stood,  doubted 
not  that  they  would  be  gladly  welcomed  by  this  oppressed 
and  forsaken  people.  But  such  was  not  the  case.  At 
first,  every  one,  looking  upon  them  as  the  disguised  emis- 
saries of  their  persecutors,  refused  to  receive  them  ;  and 
thus  they  were  without  shelter,  in  a  foreign  land,  where 
hospitality  and  charity  were  punished  with  death,  unless 
bestowed  upon  heretics. 

But  the  Fathers  were  in  nowise  discouraged,  nor  was 
their  zeal  diminished ;  on  the  contrary,  their  Christian 
patience,  fortitude,  humility,  and,  above  all,  indomitable 
courage  and  perseverance  amidst  so  many  trials  and  afflic- 
tions, at  last  convinced  the  Catholics  of  the  real  purpose 
of  their  visit,  and  won  their  confidence. 

The  Jesuits  spent  thirty-four  days  in  the  assiduous  and 
unremitting  discharge  of  their  sacred  duties,  hearing  con- 
fessions, giving  instructions,  and  consoling  and  fortifying 
those  whose  faith  had  been  so  sorely  tested. 

Henry  VIII,  having  been  informed  of  their  arrival 
in  Ireland,  and  of  the  purpose  of  their  visit,  set  a  price 
upon  their  heads.  The  people,  becoming  alarmed,  im- 
plored them,  as  they  valued  their  own  safety,  and  if  they 
would  not  draw  down  upon  their  unhappy  country  re- 
doubled persecutions,   to   depart,  for   the   tyrant  monarch 


30  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

had  threatened  death  and  the  confiscation  of  personal 
property  to  such  as  should  dare  afford  shelter  to  the  apos- 
tolical legates.  The  Fathers  submitted.  They  had  the 
consolation  of  knowing  that  they  had  traversed  the  entire 
island,  and  of  having  enlightened  many  a  Christian  soul, 
and  strengthened,  encouraged,  and  imparted  a  blessing  to 
them  all,  in  the  name  of  the  common  Father  of  the  faith- 
ful— in  fact,  of  having  accomplished  their  mission  ;  for 
they  were  instructed  that,  should  their  presence  in  Ireland 
be  made  a  pretext  for  the  infliction  of  fresh  persecutions, 
they  should  return  to  Italy.  With  heart-felt  sorrow  and 
reluctance  they  tore  themselves  away  from  those  faithful 
but  desolate  souls,  which  were  filled  with  grief  at  their 
departure. 

In  the  excess  of  their  devotedness  and  charity,  the  two 
Jesuits  conceived  the  impracticable  idea  of  proceeding  to 
London,  and  there  seeking  an  interview  with  the  very 
monarch  who  had  decreed  their  death.  They  would  fain 
have  confronted  him,  and,  with  all  the  power  of  truth,  and 
all  the  eloquence  that  charity  could  dictate,  conjured  him 
to  desist  from  his  cruel  persecutions.  Such  a  course 
would  have  exposed  them  to  the  risk  of  immediate  death; 
but  this  could  not  deter  them,  for  they  felt  that  their  lives 
were  consecrated  to  God,  and  they  would  have  been  but 
too  happy  in  sacrificing  them  for  such  a  cause. 

They  set  out  with  this  intention,  but,  on  arriving  in  Scot- 
land, they  found  themselves  compelled  to  renounce  their 
heroic  project.  The  Scotch  had  risen  in  great  numbers, 
and  declared  in  favor  of  the  new  heresies.  The  Fathers, 
thus  thwarted,  and  unable  to  make  their  way  through  any 
part  of  the  country,  were  compelled  to  proceed  to  France. 
They  landed  at  Dieppe,  and  made  their  way  to  Paris, 
where  they  left  Francesco  Zapata,  in  order  that  he  might 
complete  his  studies. 

Francis   I   was    at   this   time   at  war  with   Charles  V. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OP    LOYOLA.  31 

When  the  two  Jesuits  made  their  appearance  at  Lyons, 
the  people  became  suspicious  and  excited  at  the  appear- 
ance of  two  men  whose  tattered  garments  indicated  ex- 
treme poverty  and  want,  but  w^hose  hmguage  proclaimed 
them  to  be  persons  of  the  most  highly  cultivated  talents 
and  learning.  The  fact  that  one  of  them  was  a  Spaniard 
was  more  than  sufficient  to  suggest  the  idea  that  they 
were  spies  of  Charles  V.  They  were  forthwith  consigned 
to  prison.  They  appealed  to  Cardinals  de  Tournon  and 
Gaddi,  who  resided  in  the  city,  and  who,  recognizing  the 
two  Jesuits,  had  them  treated  with  the  honor  and  re- 
spect due  to  the  high  position  they  filled.  Immediately 
horses  and  guides  were  furnished  them,  in  order  that  they 
miiiht  reach  the  frontier  without  further  molestation,  and 
continue  their  journey  in  safety  to  Rome.  Besides,  al- 
though despite  the  protestations  of  the  two  Fathers,  they 
were  prevailed  upon  to  accept  a  sufficient  sum  of  money 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  journey. 

II. 

Italy  was  threatened  on  all  sides  with  heresy,  and, 
toward  the  end  of  the  year  15il:2,  information  reached 
Rome  that  it  had  found  its  way  into  several  towns,  and 
that  the  people  of  Foligno  and  Faenza  had  suffered 
themselves  to  be  almost  totally  led  away  by  it.  Paul  III 
was  desirous  of  reclaiming  those  who  had  been  seduced 
beyond  the  pale  of  the  Church;  but  Ignatius  Loyola  could 
spare  for  this  service  only  Fathers  Brouet  and  Salmeron, 
before  whose  zealous  preaching  heresy  wag  put  to  flight. 
The  Bishop  of  Modena  likewise  solicited  the  services  of 
one  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers  for  his  diocese,  and  Father  Sal- 
meron was  placed  ^t  his  disposal,  through  whose  labors, 
heresy,  that  scourge  of  souls,  was  triumphantly  repulsed. 
Brouet  was  ordered  to  Montepulciano,  where  the  same 
happy  results  were  effected;  after  which,  by  the  direction 
5 


32  HISTORY    or    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  Cardinal  Carpi,  he  proceeded  to  Reggio,  there  to  reform 
abuses  which  had  crept  into  one  of  the  monasteries. 

Laynez,  during  all  this  time,  became  the  admiration  of 
the  city  of  Venice.  He  resided  at  the  hospital,  notwith- 
standing the  urgent  solicitations  of  the  Doge,  Pietro 
Lando,  that  he  should  take  up  his  abode  at  the  palace. 
In  the  morning  he  preached  in  turn  at  the  various 
churches  throughout  the  city,  and  devoted  his  evenings 
to  expounding  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Saviour.  His  animated  and  brilliant  elo- 
quence excited  so  much  enthusiastic  admiration,  that 
crowds  waited  the  entire  night  around  the  church  where 
he  was  to  preach,  in  order  to  obtain  admittance  in  the 
morning;  and  even  the  Lutherans  themselves  thronged  to 
the  Church  of  the  Saviour  in  the  evening,  for  it  was  there 
that  he  attacked  and  unmasked  their  doctrines  with  a 
power  of  eloquence  and  a  force  of  logic  which  they 
could  not  but  admire.  Father  Laynez  was  master  of 
Yenice.  One  single  instance  will  suflBce  to  demonstrate 
the  fact. 

The  holy  season  of  Lent  was  at  hand:  the  zealous 
missionary  conjured  the  Venetians,  in  the  name  of  the 
sorrowing  Church,  at  the  then  approaching  penitential 
season,  to  give  up  the  pleasures  of  the  Carnival.  This 
was,  for  such  a  people,  to  demand  one  of  the  greatest 
sacrifices  and  acts  of  self-denial;  but,  nevertheless,  the 
Venetians  could  refuse  nothing  that  might  be  demanded 
of  them  by  their  beloved  apostle.  For  that  year  the 
usual  three  days'  festivities  and  trivial  amusements  were 
replaced  by  exercises  of  penance  and  practices  of  piety. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  Doge  had  made 
frequent  and  urgent  solicitations  to  the  Jesuit  Father  to 
make  the  palace  his  home.  Many  of  the  nobles  had 
made  similar  overtures,  with  no  better  result;  among 
these  was  Andrea  Lipomani.      The  Utter,  however,  sue- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  33 

ceeded  in  winning  tlie  heart  and  confidence  of  the  mis- 
sionary: he  persevered  in  his  importunities,  and  Laynez, 
impelled  by  Providence,  could  no  longer  refuse.  Leaving 
the  hospital,  he  spent  the  remaining  days  of  his  sojourn 
at  Venice,  at  the  palace  of  Lipomani.  His  host,  desirous 
of  evincing  his  gratitude,  presented  the  Priory  of  Padua 
to  the  Jesuits,  for  the  purpose  of  founding  a  college. 

The  zeal  and  learning  of  Father  Laynez  had  succeeded 
in  restorins;  to  the  Church  all  whom  the  heretical  teach 
ings  had  seduced  :  the  strayed  sheep  had  once  more  en- 
tered the  fold.     The  mission  of  the  apostle  was  accom- 
plished. 

From  Venice  he  hastened  to  Padua,  where  he  rendered 
to  the  Church  the  same  brilliant  services  which  had  sig- 
nalized his  stay  in  the  capital  he  had  just  left.  Here 
he  also  organized  the  college  which  Andrea  Lipomani  had 
founded.  He  next  went  to  Brescia,  where  he  encoun- 
tered an  apostate  monk,  to  whose  seductive  eloquence 
many  had  already  fallen  victims.  The  wide-spread  repu- 
tation of  Father  Laynez,  the  victories  he  had  achieved 
over  heresy  at  Venice  and  Padua,  as  well  as  the  admira- 
tion he  had  won,  were  well  known  at  Brescia.  The  apos- 
tate monk  was  in  nowise  disconcerted  on  learning  the 
sensation  caused  throughout  the  city  by  the  arrival 
of  the  learned  Jesuit;  on  the  contrary,  he  boldly  an- 
nounced that  he  was  ready  to  meet  him  and  to  refute 
his  teachings.  "Let  me  only  be  permitted  to  propound 
to  him  a  few  objections  on  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory, 
and  I  will  soon  silence  him!  He  will  soon  acknowledge 
himself  a  Lutheran!"  Laynez  had  heard  of  the  defiant 
challenge,  which  he  accepted.  The  controversy  was 
commenced,  and  crowds  thronged  from  all  parts  to  hear 
the  two  champions  who  had  met  face  to  face. 

Father    Laynez,   standing   in    front    of    his   adversary, 
listened  to  his  arguments  without  once  interrupting  him, 


34        HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

with  eyes  bent  on  the  ground,  a  calm  countenance,  and 
a  firm  though  modest  bearing.  The  apostate,  rejoicing 
over  this  silence,  proceeded  to  propound  his  arguments, 
with  rapturous  and  brilliant  sallies,  which,  for  the  time, 
seemed  to  presage  a  triumph  over  his  adversary.  The 
audience  awaited  in  breathless  anxiety;  the  stolid  immo- 
bility of  the  Jesuit  kept  every  hearer  in  a  state  of  sus- 
pense. The  monk  himself  became  fatigued  with  his  own 
effort,  and  was  amazed  at  the  silent  patience  displayed  by 
Father  Laynez,  on  whom,  finally,  the  whole  attention  of 
the  audience  was  concentrated.  At  length  the  monk 
stopped :  he  had  concluded  his  argument,  and  called  upon 
the  Jesuit  to  answer  him,  if  he  could. 

Father  Laynez,  who  was  gifted  with  a  most  prodigious 
memory,  arose,  took  up  each  of  the  objections  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  order  in  which  they  had  been  presented 
to  him,  and  refuted  them  so  clearly  and  so  triumphantly, 
one  after  the  other,  that  his  adversary  acknowledged  his 
defeat,  reentered  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  and  became 
the  most  devoted  friend  of  his  victor. 

The  Holy  See  could  not  Hut  be  struck  by  all'  these  ex- 
traordinary successes.  Perceiving  how  much  the  Church 
might  expect  from  the  new  Order,  the  restriction  which 
limited  the  number  of  its  members  to  sixty  had  been 
already  removed.  Henceforth  it  was  to  be  at  liberty  to 
enroll  as  many  members  as  might  be  deemed  worthy  of 
joining  its  ranks.  This  step  was  rendered  not  only  de- 
sirable, but  indispensable,  for  the  Pope  was  importuned 
from  all  quarters  to  send  priests  of  the  Society  of  Igna- 
tius of  Loyola  to  sustain  the  pending  struggle  against 
the  Lutherans,  who  were  propagating  their  baneful  doc- 
trines and  influence  throughout  the  entire  extent  of  Eu- 
rope,  thereby  causing  piteous  desolation  in  the  Church. 
Providence  had  foreseen  this.  The  number  of  novices 
increased    daily.      Ignatius    himself  watched    over   their 


GENERALSHIP  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS  OF  LOYOLA.     35 

spiritual  progress,  subjected  them  to  the  severest  tests, 
in  order  to  strengthen  their  virtue,  and  it  was  not  until 
they  had  passed  through  this  sanctifying  ordeal  that  he 
allowed  them  to  enter  upon  their  studies.  The  result 
was  most  happy;  for  these  trials,  far  from  disheart- 
ening the  novices,  served  rather  as  an  additional  attrac- 
tion. 

III. 

In  accordance  with  the  plan  of  the  holy  founder  of  the 
Order,  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  bound  to  have  colleges 
possessing  the  same  privileges  as  the  universities ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  such  colleges  were  to  be  the  fruit  of 
its  own  development.  In  the  mean  time,  it  was  provided 
that  the  novices  were  to  be  distributed  among  the  various 
universities,  there  to  pursue  their  studies,  and  take  their 
degrees. 

This  providential  provision  tended  materially  to  aug- 
ment the  members  of  the  societ3^ 

The  first  Fathers  of  the  Order  had  established  such  a 
reputation  for  themselves  at  Paris,  that  it  was  impossible 
ever  to  obliterate  it.  There  it  was  that  their  learnino:  was 
eulogized,  their  virtues  admired,  their  persons  beloved,  and 
a  lasting  friendship  established  between  them  and  those 
who  were  so  fortunate  as  to  have  made  their  acquaintance. 
Ignatius  had  sent  to  the  French  capital  several  of  his  nov- 
ices, appointing  as  their  superior  the  eldest  and  most 
perfect  among  them,  his  personal  friend,  Diego  of  Eguia. 
Their  edifying  life,  their  gentle  and  simple  manners,  and 
the  brotherly  love  which  reigned  among  them,  revived  rec- 
ollections of  those  first  beloved  Fathers,  and  caused  them 
to  be  similarly  sought  for  and  esteemed.  They  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  good-will  and  favor  of  their  friends  to 
induce  them  to  unite  in  spiritual  retreats,  and  ere  long 
they  reaped  a  rich  harvest,  enlisting  many  recruits  for  the 
5* 


36  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

Order   from   amonsr    the  most   learned  and  distinguished 


Classes. 

In  the  year  1545,  William  Duprat,  Bishop  of  Clermont, 
one  of  their  warmest  admirers,  tendered  them  his  man- 
sion at  Paris,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  college ; 
but  the  University  and  the  Parliament  being  opposed  to 
its  formation,  the  Bishop  invited  the  Jesuits  into  the  dio- 
cese, and,  at  his  own  cost,  established  one  of  their  col- 
leges at  Billom.  This  was  the  first  Jesuit  college  founded 
in  France. 

Most  of  the  universities  were  opposed  to  the  Jesuits  as 
a  body  of  teachers,  for  the  latter  had  acquired  so  great 
a  reputation  for  eloquence  and  learning,  that  the  most 
profound  among  the  professors  could  consider  them  in 
no  other  light  than  that  of  rivals.  The  Parliament  at 
Paris  joined  in  the  opposition  offered  by  the  universities. 
The  spirit  of  independence  of  these  two  bodies  would  not 
allow  them  to  receive  or  associate  themselves  with  a  body 
of  men  who  so  openly  avowed  their  entire  submission  to 
the  Holy  See.  Their  sole  aim  and  desire,  therefore,  was 
to  repudiate  them. 

The  holy  founder,  feeling  in  his  heart  that  the  time  de- 
creed by  Almighty  God  had  not  yet  arrived,  contented 
himself  with  the  good  his  novices  were  doing  at  Paris, 
permitting,  however,  a  sufficient  number  of  them  to  remain 
in  order  to  open  a  college  at  the  Palace  of  Clermont,^  so 
soon  as  circumstances  would  permit. 

In  Spain  the  Jesuits  did  not  meet  with  the  same  op- 
position. Don  Antonio  of  Araoz  was  the  first  who  took 
the  vows  after  the  first  ten  members  of  the  society.  Be- 
ing compelled  to  visit  his  native  country,  he  was  preceded 

*  Thus  was  designated  the  Palace  of  William  Duprat,  Bishop  of 
Clermont,  used,  at  the  present  time,  as  the  College  of  Louis  Le 
Grand. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  37 

at  Barcelona   by  a  letter   from    Ignatius  of   Loyola,  an- 
nouncino-  his  coniinf:  to  Donna  Isabella  dc  l\osello.     This 
information  spread  rapidly  throughout  the  city,  in  which 
Ignatius  had   left  so  many  affecting  recollections.     Both 
rich  and  poor  eagerly  flocked  to  welcome  to  their  city  the 
beloved  nephew  of  the  Apostle  of  Barcelona.     Scarcely 
had  Antonio  of  Araoz  made  his  appearance,  when  he  was 
surrounded  by  the. multitude  and  received  with  acclama- 
tions of  joy.     On  the  very  first  day  after  his  arrival,  he 
was  constrained  to  preach,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  eagerness 
of  the  Barcelonians ;  and,  as  they  expressed  a  wish,  above 
all,  to  have  some  tidings  of  Don  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  he 
selected  as  the  theme  of  his  discourse  the  fruits  already 
reaped  by  the  society  of  which  Ignatius  was  the  founder. 
But,  as  the   entire  city  were  anxious   to   hear  him  relate 
these  marvels,  he  was  requested   to   repeat  his  discourse, 
and    every   day   he    preached    at   the   different   churches. 
Even  this  did  not  suffice  :   the  churches  were  too  small  to 
accommodate  the  vast  multitudes  that  poured  in  from  all 
parts ;  he  was,  therefore,  compelled  to  address  them  from 
a  platform,  erected  in  the  largest  public   square   of  the 
city.     Not  only  was  the  vast  open  space  crow^ded,  but  every 
window  of  the  surrounding  houses  was  filled  with  anxious 
listeners,  and  even  the  tops  of  the  houses  were  occupied. 
The  enthusiasm  of  the  people  increased  the  Father's  elo- 
quence.    It  was  decided  on  the  spot  that  a  house  of  the 
society  should  be  founded  in  the  city  of  Barcelona.     Every 
purse  was  freely  opened,  the  house  was  founded,  and  all 
that  was   required  now  was  the  arrival  of  the  anxiously- 
looked-for  Fathers  to  conduct  it. 

Araoz  continued  his  journey  through  Castile.  At 
Burgos  and  Valladolid  he  was  urged  to  address  the  peo- 
ple, as  he  had  done  at  Barcelona  :  he  did  so,  and  with 
similar  results.  Each  of  these  towns  collected  the  re- 
quisite  funds  for   founding  a    house    of  the    Society    of 


38  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Jesus.  In  tlie  Basque  Province  he  was  obliged  to  )'ielcl 
to  the  wishes  of  the  inhabitants,  whom  he  addressed  in  the 
open  country,  and  where  every  surrounding  tree  was  laden 
with  anxious  and  attentive  listeners.  The  Viceroy  of 
Catalonia,  Don  Francis  of  Borgia,  Duke  of  Gandia,  hav- 
ing been  present  at  one  of  Father  Araoz's  sermons,  inti- 
mated his  desire  to  have  a  private  interview.  Father 
Araoz  consented,  and  read  to  the  Viceroy  the  bull  of  Pope 
Paul  III,  including  the  object  and  plan  of  the  society. 
The  Viceroy  replied  that  it  appeared  to  him  to  be  of 
heavenly  origin,  and  promised  to  use  all  his  influence  for 
its  propagation  in  Spain. 

As  early  as  1540,  John  III,  King  of  Portugal,  had 
requested  of  the  Pope  to  send  him  priests  of  the  society 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  people  of  the  Portuguese 
colonies,  in  the  East  Indies.  Don  Pedro,  of  Mascaren- 
has,  the  Portuguese  Ambassador  at  Rome,  was  also  in- 
structed  to  solicit  six  of  the  missionaries,  whose  reputa- 
tion had  already  spread  all  over  Europe.  "  As  yet," 
replied  the  holy  founder,  "we  number  but  ten  members  ; 
if  we  give  you  six,  how  many  shall  we  have  left  for  the 
rest  of  the  world  ?"  The  future  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
was  predicted  in  this  reply.  We  have  seen  that  only 
two  members  of  the  young  society  had  been  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  King  of  Portugal.  One  of  these,  it 
is  true,  was  Francis  Xavier.  Every-where,  and  at  all 
times,  the  followers  of  Ignatius  carried  out  the  mission 
to  which  they  had  consecrated  their  lives.  Rodriguez 
took  shipping  for  Lisbon,  and  although,  during  the  voy- 
age, he  was  sutFering  from  a  severe  attack  of  intermittent 
fever,  he  preached,  heard  confessions,  and  reclaimed  sin- 
ners, nursed  the  sick,  comforted  the  dying,  and  won  for 
himself  the  good  wishes  and  blessings  of  all  on  board. 
Francis  Xavier,  who  travelled  by  land,  in  company  with 
the  ambassador  and   his    numerous  suite,  endeared  him- 


GENERALSHIP    OP    ST.    IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  39 

self  to  all,  and  appealed  so  forcibly  to  their  consciences, 
that  he  was  obliged  to  halt  by  the  wayside  to  hear  the 
confessions  of  those  of  the  attendants  whom  he  had  won 
over  to  God,  and  in  the  inns  to  shrive  those  more  im- 
mediately attached  to  the  person  of  Don  Pedro  Masca- 
renhas. 

On  their  arrival  at  Lisbon,  the  two  Fathers  beo:tjed 
alms  in  the  streets,  and  took  shelter  at  night  in  the  Hos- 
pital of  All-Saints.  They  continued  to  preach  and  hear 
confessions  with  so  much  success,  that  it  became  impos- 
sible for  them  to  respond  to  the  masses  who  so  eagerly 
sought  their  assistance.  The  King  made  many  fruitless 
attempts  to  induce  them  to  take  up  their  abode  in  his 
palace.  Faithful  to  their  vows,  they  declined  any  asylum 
but  that  of  poverty.  By  the  holiness  of  their  lives,  com- 
bined with  their  powg^s  of  reasoning,  they  soon  succeeded 
in  making  many  converts,  and  effecting  most  important 
reforms.  The  King  was  most  desirous  that  they  should 
not  leave  Portugal ;  that  they  should  enlist  novices,  found 
new  houses  and  colleges,  and  that,  at  some  future  day, 
they  should  be  enabled  to  send  these  new  missionaries, 
instructed  and  prepared  by  them,  to  the  colonies  of  In- 
dia. But  such  was  not  the  will  of  God.  Ignatius  con- 
sented  to  allow  Father  Rodriguez  to  remain  ;  but  Father 
Xavier  was  ordered  to  the  Indies.  At  the  request  of  the 
King,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  conferred  upon  him  the  title 
of  Apostolic  Nuncio  for  the  entire  East,  and  he  embarked 
on  the  7th  of  April,  1541,  to  the  great  sorrow  and  regret 
of  the  court  and  the  people.  On  this  very  day  he  had 
completed  his  thirty-fifth  year. 

The  two  Jesuits  had  already  enlisted  some  new  dis- 
ciples. Two  of  them  accompanied  Francis  Xavier  to  India ; 
the  rest  remained  with  Father  Rodriguez.  The  year  fol- 
lowing, the  King  gave  them  the  house  of  St.  Anthony- 
Abbot,   at   Lisbon,    and   so    rapidly   did    their    numbers 


40  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

increase,  that,  a  few  months  after,  they  founded  the  cele- 
brated College  of  Coimbra,  which  was  destined  to  become 
a  nursery  for  Indian  missionaries. 

In  less  than  two  years  from  this  time,  including  fathers 
and  novices,  they  numbered  sixty.  Their  good  works, 
zeal,  and  personal  piety  became  so  generally  known,  that 
the  King  frequently  exclaimed :  "  I  wish  there  was  a 
house  of  the  Jesuits  in  every  town  in  my  kingdom." 

IV. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Father  Lefevre  left  Rome 
in  October,  1540,  by  order  of  the  Pope,  to  accompany 
Don  Pedro  Ortiz,  the  Ambassador  of  Charles  V,  to  the 
Diet  of  Worms.  Lefevre  arrived  there,  bearing  the  title 
of  Theologian  of  the  Holy  See,  in  order  to  take  part  in 
the  discussion  proposed  by  the  Lutherans.  These  con- 
ferences were  mainly  brought  about  by  the  heretics,  in 
sheer  opposition  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  Some  of  them 
quickly  withdrew;  the  others  either  refused  or  eluded 
all  serious  discussion,  seeking  only  to  try  the  patience  of 
the  Catholic  doctors.  Father  Lefevre,  seeing  their  dis- 
honesty, determined  to  devote  himself  to  some  other  mis- 
sion. He  found  that  the  spread  of  heresy  in  Germany 
was  mainly  attributable  to  the  ignorance  of  the  people, 
and,  more  dangerous  still,  to  the  shortcomings  of  a  priest- 
hood abandoned  to  the  gratification  of  their  own  passions. 

In  the  entire  city  of  Worms  there  was  but  one  priest 
worthy  of  respect;  this  was  the  Dean  of  the  Chapter, 
who  bore  also  the  title,  and  exercised  the  functions,  of 
Vicar-General.  Disheartened  by  the  indifference  of  the 
people,  and  the  bad  example  of  the  priests,  he  was  about 
to  abandon  both  to  the  enemies  of  the  faith.  Lefevre 
consoled  him,  tendering  his  zealous  assistance  to  bring 
about  a  reform  in  this  lamentable  state  of  affairs.  The 
Dean  was  encouraged,  and,  through  the  active  and  untir- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  41 

ing  zeal  of  the  Jesuit,  the  stray  sheep  were  brought  back 
to  him. 

Lelt^vre  next  proceeded  to  Spires,  where  he  also  reaped 
a  rich  and  abundant  harvest.  His  stay  was  not  long,  be- 
ing called  away  to  llatisbon,  there  to  assist  at  the  synod 
which  was  to  be  held  by  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  in 
the  presence  of  the  Emperor.  He  employed  himself  dur- 
ing the  journey  with  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  officers, 
and  others,  who  accompanied  him;  for  every  moment  of 
his  life  was  to  be  employed  in  promoting  the  greater 
glory  and  honor  of  God. 

The  Diet  of  Ratisbon  was,  in  every  respect,  similar 
to  that  which  had  been  held  at  Worms.  The  dishonesty 
of  the  Protestants  prevented  any  important  result.  Father 
Lef^vre,  therefore,  felt  that  it  was  his  duty  to  enter  upon 
a  more  active  and  more  fruitful  ministry.  He  catechised, 
preached,  and  gave  spiritual  retreats  to  the  bishops, 
princes,  doctors,  ambassadors,  and  to  the  members  of 
the  Diet.  All,  charmed  with  his  convincing  and  persua- 
sive eloquence,  thronged  daily  around  his  pulpit  to  listen 
to  his  consoling  discourses.  They,  one  and  all,  even 
Prince  Charles  of  Savoy,  the  son  of  the  King,  confided 
their  spiritual  direction  to  him. 

The  next  field  of  his  labors  was  Nuremberg,  where, 
just  as  he  was  about  to  see  a  change  brought  about  by 
his  zeal  and  devotion,  he  received  orders  to  proceed  to 
Spain. 

As  it  had  been  decided  that  Father  Lefevre  was  to  quit 
Germany,  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  not  wishing  to  leave  that 
fruitful  field  uncultivated,  sent  thither  Claude  Lcjay  and 
Nicolas  Bobadilla. 

* 

Father  Lefevre  had  worked  much  good  among  the 
higher  clergy  and  nobility  in  Katisbon :  time  had  not  al- 
lowed him  to  extend  his  labors  among  the  other  classes. 
This  field  was  left  open  to  Father  Lcjay.     But  no  sooner 


42  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

did  he  attempt  to  call  those  recreant  priests  to  a  sense  of 
the  duties  of  their  state,  than  all  indignantly  arose  against 
him.  The  heretics,  too,  readily  availed  themselves  of 
this  opportunity,  and  cried  out,  "Death  to  the  Jesuits!" 
They  threatened  to  throw  him  into  the  Danube;  and  the 
apostle  was  cautioned;  but  he  replied:  "What  does  it 
matter,  whether  I  go  to  heaven  by  land  or  by  water?" 
And  he  continued  his  labors  with  even  more  success  than 
he  had  dared  to  hope  for. 

Father  Bobadilla  accompanied  Ferdinand  I,  King  of 
the  Romans,  to  the  Conference  of  Vienna.  He  preached 
daily  in  Latin  or  Italian,  and  held  discussions  with  the 
most  learned  heretics,  in  presence  of  the  king.  He  sub- 
sequently accompanied  the  Pope's  Nuncio  to  the  Diet 
of  Nuremberg,  and  afterward,  by  order  of  King  Ferdi- 
nand, went  with  his  ambassador,  the  Bishop  of  Passau,  to 
the  Diet  of  Spires,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Worms. 
These  assemblies  concluded,  the  bishops  contended  among 
themselves  as  to  which  of  them  should  be  favored  with 
the  services  of  the  Jesuit  Father,  each  one  desiring  to 
have  him  in  his  diocese,  to  oppose  the  eiforts  of  the  Lu- 
therans ;  but  Bobadilla,  yielding  to  the  solicitations  of 
the  King,  returned  to  Vienna,  where  he  undertook  the 
charge  of  reforming  the  priesthood.  AlmigUty  God  show- 
ered such  signal  blessings  on  this  glorious  mission,  that 
Ferdinand,  enchanted  at  his  success,  appointed  him  his 
theologian  at  the  new  Diet  of  1543.  He  there  refuted 
the  heretical  doctrines,  fortified  the  faith,  and  rekindled 
true  piety  in  the  hearts  of  the  Catholics.  This  accom- 
plished, he  proceeded  to  the  Diet  of  Ratisboii,  where  he 
met  Father  Lejay. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  theologian  of  King  Ferdinand, 
the  Pope's  Nuncio  felt  that  he  could  dispense  with  his 
own.     He  dispatched  Father  Lejay  to  Ingolstadt,  then  be- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS  OP  LOYOLA.    43 

set  with  heresy.  Shortly  afterward,  a  synod  being  about 
to  be  convened  at  Saltzbiirg,  the  Archbishop  of  the  place, 
who  was  brother  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  desired  to  have 
Lejay  for  his  theologian;  and  the  Father,  according  to 
his  desire,  proceeded  thither.  All  the  assembled  bish- 
ops, struck  with  admiration  at  the  profound  erudition  of 
the  retiring  and  humble  missionary,  sought  daily  his 
counsel  and  advice,  prior  to  the  opening  of  their  deliber- 
ations. Moreover,  at  their  request,  he  wrote  out  for  them 
a  summary  of  his  arguments  and  opinions  on  the  various 
points  that  were  brought  forward  for  discussion  by  the 
Emperor.  His  advice  was  adopted  and  acted  upon  by  the 
assembled  prelates. 

Germany,  at  this  time,  was  in  a  very  critical  position. 
Notwithstanding  the  untiring  energy  and  unceasing  labors 
of  Fathers  Lejay  and  Bobadilla,  it  was  impossible  for 
them  to  respond  to  all  the  calls  made  upon  them  to  de- 
fend the  faith  and  combat  heresy.  At  the  urgent  solicit- 
ation of  several  bishops  and  princes,  Father  Lefevre,  who 
had  accompanied  the  Emperor's  embassador  to  Spain,  was 
recalled  by  order  of  the  Pope.  Although  unable  to  de- 
vote more  than  a  short  time  to  each  of  the  towns  through 
which  he  passed  with  the  ambassadors,  he  accomplished 
much  for  the  instruction  of  the  poor  and  the  education 
of  the  young.  While  absent,  he  had  been  introduced  to 
the  Princesses  Mary  and  Jane,  daughters  of  Charles  V, 
and  did  not  fail  to  profit  by  the  opportunity  thus  afforded 
him  of  imparting  to  them  such  counsels  as  were  calcu- 
lated, at  some  future  time,  to  produce  the  most  salutary 
results.  It  was  at  this  particular  juncture  that,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  commands  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  he  re- 
turned to  Germany.  Two  priests,  Don  Juan  d'Aragon, 
and  Alvarez  Alfonso,  attached  to  the  royal  chapel,  ac- 
companied him,  and,  shortly  after  their  arrival  in  Gcr- 
6 


44  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

many,  joined  the  Order,  the  humility  and  poverty  of  its 
members  havins;  more  attractions  for  them  than  all  the 
riches  and  pomp  of  a  court. 

The  arrival  of  Lefevre  at  Spires,  in  October,  1542, 
struck  terror  among  the  clergy,  who,  ignorant  and  de- 
praved as  were  the  German  priesthood  in  general,  per- 
suaded themselves  that  the  mission  of  the  Jesuits  was 
to  enlighten  them  and  bring  about  a  reform  in  their 
lives.  In  this  they  were  not  mistaken.  The  task  was 
not  an  easy  one,  especially  in  the  then  agitated  and  ex- 
cited state  of  the  public  mind.  As  was  his  wont,  the 
good  Father  was  the  very  model  of  humility,  docility 
and  charity :  he  soon  found  a  means  of  touching  the 
hearts  of  the  most  hardened,  and  of  gaining  the  full  con- 
fidence and  friendship  of  all  ;  the  consequence  was,  that 
his  spiritual  retreats  were  productive  of  the  most  happy 
effects,  causing  p,  thorough  reform  throughout  the  city. 
At  this  juncture,  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  Archbishop  of 
Mayence,  summoned  him  to  that  town.  He  obeyed  the 
call,  but  it  was  with  feelings  of  the  deepest  regret  that 
he  tore  himself  away  from  the  pastors  and  their  flocks, 
whom  he  had  been  the  means  of  restoring  to  the  friend- 
ship of  Almighty  God.  On  his  arrival  at  Mayence,  he 
found  that  the  irregularities  that  existed  were  innumer- 
able. Again  did  his  gentleness,  zeal,  and  piety  produce 
the  most  extraordinary  and  happy  results.  The  people 
reentered  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  while  the  priesthood 
consecrated  to  penance  and  study  the  time  which  they 
had  been  accustomed  to  devote  to  idle  pleasures.  May- 
ence was  regenerated.  The  Archbishop  lacked  words  to 
express  his  gratitude. 

Hermann  von  Weiden,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  at- 
tracted by  the  laxity  of  the  Lutheran  doctrine,  wavered 
in  the  faith.  The  Catholics  of  the  diocese,  taking  alarm 
lest  the    defection  of   their    chief   pastor    should    spread 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OP    LOYOLA.  45 

among  his  flock,  begged  imploringly  that  Father  Leftivre 
would  come  and  rescue  them  from  the  terrible  affliction 
with  which  they  were  menaced.  LefcJvre  immediately  re- 
sponded, and  went  to  Cologne,  but,  alas  !  too  late  to  save 
the  chief  pastor  of  the  diocese  from  the  abyss  into  which 
he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  drawn  ;  but,  thanks  to  the 
eloquence  and  exertions  of  the  good  Father,  the  people 
were  less  easily  led  away,  and  remained  faithful  to  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church. 

A  marriage  alliance  being  about  to  take  place  between 
Prince  Philip,  son  of  Charles  V,  and  the  Princess  Mary, 
daughter  of  the  King  of  Portugal,  John  III  requested 
the  Pope  and  Ignatius  to  allow  one  or  two  Jesuits  to  ac- 
company the  Princess  to  Castile ;  above  all,  he  desired  that 
Father  Lefevre,  in  preference  to  any  other,  should  be 
appointed.  Accordingly,  the  Pope  gave  the  necessary 
order  to  that  Father  to  proceed  to  Lisbon.  The  humble 
religious  had  nothing  to  say;  he  left  all  to  the  judgment 
of  Ignatius,  and  the  wish  of  the  Holy  Father.  The 
Nuncio  urged  him  to  remain  in  Cologne,  where  he  had 
done  so  much  good  ;  but  Lefevre  simply  replied  that  he 
had  taken  a  vow  of  obedience,  and  started  on  his  journey 
toward  Lisbon.  On  reaching  Louvain,  he  was  attacked 
with  a  violent  fever.  The  novices  of  the  society,  who 
were  pursuing  their  studies  in  the  university  of  that 
town,  bestowed  upon  him  every  care  and  attention,  and 
when  the  fever  was  at  its  height,  totally  disabling  him 
for  any  exertion,  he  appointed  one  of  them.  Father  Fran- 
cesco Strada,  to  give  public  spiritual  exercises,  with  a 
view  to  reanimate  the  fervor  of  the  Catholics  of  Louvain. 
The  result  was,  that  crowds,  whose  hearts  had  been 
touched,  flocked  to  the  sick  man's  chamber,  to  whom, 
notwithstanding  the  severity  of  his  sufferings,  he  afforded 
spiritual  advice  and  consolation.  His  efforts  were  blessed 
in  a  marked   manner  by  Almighty  God.     No   less   than 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

twenty-one  youths  of  the  most  distinguished  families 
joined  the  society. 

The  finger  of  Providence  was  manifest  in  the  apparently 
accidental  circumstance  that  prevented  Lefevre  from  pro- 
ceeding to  Portugal.  He  was  compelled  to  return  to  Co- 
loune,  where  a  sorrowful  event  awaited  him.  The  Arch- 
bishop,  although  he  had  not  openly  declared  his  change  of 
religion,  not  only  favored  the  heretics,  but  secretly  author- 
ized them  to  preach  their  pernicious  doctrines.  On  his 
arrival,  Lefevre  encountered  three  of  the  most  celebrated 
of  the  heretical  preachers,  namely,  Bucer,  Pistorius,  and 
Philip  Melancthon.  In  his  attack  upon  them  he  dis- 
played so  much  spirit  and  learning,  that,  after  an  un- 
precedentedly  energetic  discussion,  he  came  off  the  victor, 
his  opponents  being  shamefully  put  to  flight.  With  a 
view  to  fortifying  himself,  and  to  enlisting  new  cham- 
pions, who  should  be  ever  ready  to  battle  for  the  truth, 
in  a  city  so  exposed  to  the  onslaught  of  the  enemy, 
Lefevre  established  a  college,  of  which  Leonard  Kea^ler 
was  appointed  superior.  The  learned  Canisius  was  a 
member  of  this  college.  Lefevre  could  now  leave  Co- 
lo«:ne  with  full  confidence.  Again  the  Kino;  of  Portu2;al 
requested  his  services.  He  quitted  Cologne  on  the  12th 
July,  154L 

After  his  departure,  the  Lutherans,  thinking  that  the 
field  was  again  open  to  them,  reappeared  with  more  con- 
fidence than  ever  ;  but  Canisius  came  forward  and  refuted 
them  with  an  ability  and  force  equal  to  that  of  Lefevre. 
Although  the  Archbishop  took  sides  with  them,  the  Jes- 
uit did  but  display  greater  zeal  and  energy  in  the  discus- 
sions. The  heretics,  feeling  themselves  worsted,  shouted, 
"To  arms!"  and,  recollecting  an  ancient  decree  against 
the  establishment  of  new  religious  orders,  urged  the  civil 
authorities  to  issue  a  decree  for  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits.       The    Fathers,    thus    chased    from    their    homes 


GENERALSHIP  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS  OF  LOYOLA.     47 

took  refut^^e,  some  with  the  Carthusians,  and  others  else- 
where. They  all,  however,  remained  in  the  town,  subsisting 
on  alms,  and  suffering  all  manner  of  privations,  but  with- 
out once  faltering  in  their  labors  for  the  salvation  of  souls. 
They  exercised  their  holy  calling  with  as  much  devotion 
and  confidence  as  before.  Struck  by  their  patience  and 
heroic  courage,  the  magistrates  reproached  themselves,  and 
withdrew  their  decree  of  banishment,  and  restored  to  the 
Jesuits  their  college. 

This  circumstance  had  the  effect  of  exposing  the  base 
treachery  of  the  heretics.  Archdeacon  Gropper  and  the 
clergy  became  alarmed,  and  begged  of  Canisius,  in  the 
name  of  the  Electorate,  to  go  and  lay  the  grievances  of  the 
Catholics  before  the  Emperor,  and  the  Bishop  of  Liege, 
George  of  Austria,  who  was  uncle  to  Charles  V,  and  son 
of  Maximilian  I.  His  mission  was  entirely  successful. 
The  Emperor  deprived  the  Archbishop  of  his  title,  and 
he  was  also  excommunicated  by  the  Pope :  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Adolphus  of  Schaumburg. 

In  the  mean  time,  Father  Lefevre  had  arrived  at  Lisbon, 
where  he  found  Antonio  of  Araoz,  whose  learning  and 
eloquence  attracted  large  numbers  from  all  parts.  He 
proceeded  without  delay  to  Evora,  the  residence  of  the 
court.  The  King  was  desirous  of  conferring  upon  Lefevre 
the  title  of  Patriarch  of  Ethiopia.  So  fully  did  he  appre- 
ciate the  intentions  and  importance  of  the  society,  that 
he  was  solicitous  of  confiding  to  its  members  all  those 
delicate  and  difficult  missions  in  which  the  glory  of  God 
mi^ht  be  involved.  It  was  his  desire  that  Lefevre  should 
preach  at  the  court  and  throughout  the  town.  After 
having  complied  with  the  King's  command,  and  visited 
the  college  of  Coimbra,  where  daily  application  was  made 
by  members  of  the  highest  families  for  admission,  Lefevre 
and  Araoz  returned  to  Portugal,  passing  through  Spain, 
preaching,  receiving  converts  to  the  faith,  hearing  con- 
6^ 


48  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

fessions,  and  leaving  every-whero  behind  them  an  ex- 
ample of  the  highest  virtues.  During  their  travels  their 
only  home  was  with  the  poor  in  the  hospitals.  These 
religious,  whose  celebrity  had  become  European,  for  the 
possession  of  whom  princes  and  crowned  heads  disputed, 
whom  the  nobility  and  the  people  admired  and  fondly 
cherished,  took  care  not  to  lose  any  of  that  spirit  which 
had  made  them  so  powerful  for  good  ;  their  great  de- 
sire was  to  preserve  that  humility  which  was  their 
greatest  glory,  that  poverty  which  was  their  only  riches. 
In  many  of  the  places  through  which  they  journeyed, 
they  were  solicited  to  establish  colleges,  and  funds  for 
that  purpose  were  placed  at  their  disposal.  It  was  in  the 
midst  of  these  successes  that  Father  Lefevre  received  or- 
ders to  attend  the  Council  of  Trent,  at  which  Laynez  and 
Salmeron  were  also  present,  by  order  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  in  the  capacity  of  Theologians  of  the  Holy  See. 

Lefevre  was  but  forty  years  of  age,  but  the  fatigues  and 
hardships  he  had  endured  had  completely  broken  down 
his  constitution.  His  friends  endeavored  to  prevail  upon 
him  to  forego  his  intended  journey.  "  To  travel  in  your 
condition,"  said  they,  "  would  be  death  !  " 

"It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should  live,"  replied  he; 
"  but  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  obey." 

He  took  his  departure,  preaching  by  the  way,  notwith- 
standing that  he  suffered  incessantly  from  the  fever  which 
was  upon  him.  He  embarked  at  Barcelona  at  the  begin- 
ning of  July,  reached  Rome  by  the  end  of  the  same 
month,  and  breathed  his  last  in  the  arms  of  his  Father, 
Ignatius,  August  1,  1546.  He  had  obeyed;  he  died 
happy,  and  left  his  brothers  deeply  afflicted  at  the  pre- 
mature loss  of  the  eldest  of  their  large  family,  who,  in  so 
short  a  time,  had  rendered  such  important  and  lasting  serv- 
ices to  the  Church.  Their  fear  was  that  he  never  could 
be  replaced. 


GENERALSHIP   OP    ST.  IGNATIUS   OF    LOYOLA.  49 

"lie  will  be,"  said  Ignatius,  whose  noble  countenance 
was  bathed  in  tears,  "  a  great  personage,  will  join  the  So- 
ciety, will  contribute  largely  to  its  support  and  prop.-iga- 
tion,  and,  by  his  eminent  virtues,  will  become  an  edifica- 
tion to  us  all." 

It  had  pleased  Almighty  God,  at  this  moment,  to  re- 
veal to  him  the  vocation  of  the  Duke  of  Gandia.  While 
his  disciples  refuted  the  heretics,  reclaimed  souls  who  had 
strayed  from  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  brought  about 
reforms  among  the  clergy  and  monastic  orders,  converted 
sinners,  evangelized  heathen  nations,  and  established  new 
houses,  the  holy  founder  framed  the  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Order,  and  left  imperishable  monuments  in 
the  Eternal  City. 

He  founded  a  house  of  catechumens  for  those  Jews 
who,  wishing  to  enter  the  Catholic  Church,  were  deprived 
of  their  possessions  and  left  without  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence. From  the  very  moment  of  its  foundation,  this 
house  had  yielded  abundant  fruits.  He  also  established 
the  Convent  of  St.  Martha  as  an  asylum  for  women  who 
were  not  called  to  a  religious  life,  and  likewise  St.  Cath- 
arine's, for  young  women  whose  poverty  exposed  them  to 
the  temptations  of  the  world.  He  founded  also  two  or- 
phanages, one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls. 

All  these  labors,  however,  did  not  prevent  his  constant 
solicitude  for,  and  watchfulness  over,  the  spiritual  ad- 
vancement of  his  novices.  He  was  ever  ready  to  afford 
them  advice  and  consolation  in  their  trials  and  tempta- 
tions, as  well  as  to  assist  their  teachers  in  irabuino-  them 
with  those  virtues  that  constitute  the  saint.  At  the  same 
time  he  had  entire  charge  of  the  affairs  and  of  all  the 
houses  of  the  society,  he  corresponded  with  many  of  the 
princes  and  sovereigns  of  Europe,  and  was  constantly 
consulted  by  bishops,  cardinals,  and  even  by  the  Sover- 


50  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

eign  Pontiff  himself.     He  seemed  to  possess  an  elasticity 
that  was  equal  to  every  emergency. 

The  labors  of  Francis  Xavier  in  India  were  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  marvellous  preachings  of  the  first  apostles  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Each  step  he  took  was  a  victory  over  hell. 
The  most  astounding  prodigies  accompanied  and  confirmed 
his  powerful  words.  The  Indians  surnamed  him  the  "God 
of  nature."  In  the  short  space  of  ten  years  he  had  ex- 
tended the  Gospel  over  an  area  of  nine  thousand  miles, 
saved  innumerable  souls,  filled  the  world  with  the  wonder 
of  his  miracles  and  the  sublimity  of  his  apostleship  ;  finally. 
he  won  for  himself  those  glorious  titles  which  were  awarded 
him  by  the  voice  of  the  Church  in  after  years,  of  Apos- 
tle of  the  Indies  and  Japan,  and  Defender  of  the  East. 
In  fact  he  placed  the  Society  of  Jesus  on  so  firm  a  basis 
in  the  Indies,  that  the  novices  of  Goa  were  in  nowise  in- 
ferior to  those  of  Rome,  and,  at  the  death  of  the  great 
Xavier,  (1552),  the  Society  of  Jesus  had  the  glory  of 
numbering  many  martyrs  among  its  ranks. 

In  the  year  1550,  the  Badages  made  an  attack  upon 
the  Christians  on  the  Fishery  coast  in  Travancore.  Father 
Antonio  Criminalis  directed  all  his  new  converts  to  seek 
refuge  on  board  the  Portuguese  vessels,  he  himself  re- 
fusing to  depart  until  he  had  seen  them  all  in  safety. 
The  barbarians  pursued  them  to  the  sea-shore,  when  the 
missionary,  seeing  no  more  hope  of  saving  his  children, 
turned  to  their  pursuers,  and  offering  himself  as  a  sacri- 
fice, begged  mercy  for  the  Christians.  The  Pagans  rushed 
upon  the  holy  Jesuit;  some  pierced  his  body  with  their 
lances,  while  others  directed  their  arrows  against  him,  and, 
believing  him  to  be  dead,  commenced  stripping  him  of  his 
garments  ;  but  Father  Criminalis  still  lived,  and  assisted 
his  murderers  in  taking  off  the  humble  habit  in  which  he 
was  clad,  after  which  his  soul  departed  to  the  realms  of 
bliss. 


GENERALSHIP   OP   ST.   IGNATIUS   OF   LOYOLA.  51 

In  the  same  year,  Father  Niinhez  Ribeira  met  with  his 
death,  by  poison,  at  the  hands  of  some  savages  at  Amboyna. 
The  year  following  was  destined  to  witness  the  martyrdom 
of  Melchior  Gonzalez  ;  he  was  poisoned  by  a  Pngan,  and 
met  his  death  with  a  holy  confidence  in  God.  In  an  in- 
credibly short  space  of  time  he  had  converted  to  the  true 
faith  over  four  hundred  Pagans  at  Ba9ain,  where  he  also 
built  a  church  in  honor  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  founded 
a  college  for  Christian  children,  and  converted  the  greater 
part  of  the  island  of  Salcete.  To  this  holy  man  can  be 
traced  the  foundation  of  the  Society  of  the  Holy  Child- 
hood. Finding  that  the  Indians  of  Tana  were  in  the 
habit  of  selling  their  children  to  the  Mussulmans,  who 
made  slaves  of  them,  touched  with  compassion,  he  ap- 
pealed to  the  Christians  for  assistance,  received  their  alms, 
and  became  himself  the  o;uardian  of  those  little  innocents, 
whom  he  consecrated  to  Jesus  Christ.  He  had  thus  been 
the  means  of  saving  multitudes  of  souls,  and  God  re- 
warded him  with  the  crown  of  martyrdom. 

In  1552,  Brother  Louis  Mendez,  a  catechist,  was  put 
to  death  by  the  Badages.  While  he  was  engaged  in 
prayer,  they  attacked  and  severely  ill-treated  him,  after 
which  they  beheaded  him.  Father  Paul  Vallez  suffered 
a  similar  martyrdom  through  the  cruelty  of  the  same  sav- 
ages. Already  the  Society  of  Jesus  counted  six  martyrs 
in  India,  and  thus  felt  its  power  and  strength  increas- 
ing. 

While  Francis  Xavier  preached  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  Empire  of  Japan,  Brazil  offered  a  fruitful 
field  of  labors  to  his  brothers.  In  1549,  Emmanuel 
Nobrega,  Juan  of  Azpilcueta,  Antonio  Perez,  Leonardo 
Nunhez,  San  Diego,  and  Rodriguez  accompanied  a  Portu- 
guese flotilla,  which  .was  going  to  establish  a  town  in  the 
Gulf  of  Bahia.  As  a  matter  of  course,  this  new  settle- 
ment was  to   be    composed  of  Catholics,   and,   before  it 


52  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

could  be  inhabited,  the  people  had  to  be  civilized.  The 
Jesuits,  with  their  wonted  zeal,  offered  their  services,  in 
order  to  accomplish  this  work,  difficult  and  perilous  as  it 
was.  The  new  town,  which  was  called  St.  Salvador,  was 
soon  established,  and  the  Jesuits,  having  rapidly  acquired 
a  knowledge  of  the  Brazilian  language,  began  to  preach 
and  instruct  the  inhabitants. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  Brazilians  were  a  cruel  and 
barbarous  race,  even  devouring  the  dead  bodies  of  their 
enemies,  and  giving  themselves  up  to  the  most  extrava- 
gant superstitions,  the  Jesuits  not  only  succeeded  in 
regenerating  and  civilizing  them,  but  caused  themselves 
to  be  beloved  and  revered  by  them.  They  penetrated 
into  their  haunts  in  the  forests,  where  those  savages  lived 
in  a  state  of  degradation  and  brutality;  they  conversed 
with  them  with  a  gentleness  and  Christian  charity  that 
completely  fascinated  them,  and,  after  a  year  of  unceas- 
ing labors,  patience,  and  unheard-of  self-denials,  suc- 
ceeded, under  the  direction  of  Father  Nobrega,  in  erect- 
ing three  houses  of  the  Order — one  at  St.  Salvador,  and 
two  others  in  the  vicinity  of  that  town.  In  the  in- 
terior of  these  vast  territories  there  still  remained  much 
to  be  done  ;  there  were  peoples  to  be  discovered,  and  souls 
to  be  saved.  Father  Nunhez  sought,  found,  and  saved 
them. 

Brazil  had  been  conquered  by  Don  Pedro  de  Correa, 
a  member  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  Portuguese  families  ; 
who,  although  he  had  lived  there  for  a  long  period,  had 
given  himself  but  little  trouble  to  civilize  the  people  by 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  among  them.  His  sole 
aim  was  so  to  employ  the  natives  as  to  enrich  the  treasury 
of  Portugal.  It  was  left  for  Father  Nunhez  to  demon- 
strate to  him  the  influence  which  the  inculcation  of 
Christianity  and  the  charity  of  apostolical  teaching  could 
exercise  over  those  rude  and  savage  natives.     Don  Pedro 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  53 

was  struck  with  admiration  by  the  Jesuit's  zealous  labors 
and  self-denial,  and  could  well  appreciate  the  reward  such 
labors  merited  in  the  world  to  come,  and  henceforth  he, 
too,  was  ready  to  labor  for  the  greater  glory  of  God  and 
the  salvation  of  souls,  even  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life. 
Here  was  another  great  triumph;  Don  Pedro  entered  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 

Following  the  practice  of  the  illustrious  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  the  Fathers  had  arrancfed  in  hvmns  the  funda- 
mental  truths  of  Christianity,  which  they  caused  the 
children  to  sing  in  the  streets  and  forests.  By  this 
means  the  parents  soon  became  familiarized  with  these 
hymns,  which  they  learned  for  the  sake  of  the  music,  and 
so  gained  a  knowledge  of  that  which,  otherwise,  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  impart  to  them.  Among  these 
people  were  some  tribes  addicted  to  cannibalism.  The 
Jesuits  attempted  to  oppose  this  inhuman  practice;  but 
the  savages,  enraged  at  the  mere  suggestion,  became  hos- 
tile to  the  missionaries,  and  threatened  to  take  their  lives, 
adding  that  they,  too,  should  soon  be  devoured.  Nothing 
daunted,  the  Jesuits  persevered  in  their  work  of  charity 
and  benevolence,  succeeded  in  surmounting  every  obstacle, 
and  finally  caused  the  savages  to  submit  to  the  teachings 
of  Divine  truth.  In  the  year  1553,  St.  Ignatius  constituted 
the  Brazils  a  province  of  the  society,  with  Father  Nobrega 
at  its  head.  Several  schools  were  erected  for  the  educa- 
tion and  instruction  of  children.  Already  two  religious 
houses  were  founded  in  the  colony  of  St.  Vincent,  and 
the  mission  rapidly  progressed. 

V. 

On  the  13th  December,  1545,  the  Cathedral  of  Trent 
presented  a  most  imposing  spectacle.  Among  those  as- 
sembled in  it  were  six  Cardinals,  three  of  whom  were  Leg- 
ates, and   afterward  filled  the  chair  of  St.  Peter ;  eleven 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

Archbishops,  sixty-niue  Bishops,  six  Ambassadors,  two 
Episcopal  Deputies,  six  Abbots,  seven  Generals  of  relig- 
ious orders,  eight  Canonists,  twelve  Theological  Profess- 
ors, twelve  Theologians  of  the  Dominicans,  fourteen  of 
the  Friars  Minors,  eleven  Conventual  Friars,  six  Francis- 
can Fathers,  nine  Carmelites,  and  five  Servites.  All  these 
were  assembled  at  the  celebrated  council,  for  which  the 
Church  had  appealed,  in  order  to  decide  certain  points 
in  dispute  between  the  heretics  and  Catholics,  and  by 
this  means  to  strengthen  the  faith  of  those  who  wavered 
in  it. 

In  the  course  of  the  month  of  May  following,  (1546), 
there  were  added  to  this  assemblage  of  eminent  per- 
sonages three  priests,  whose  outward  appearance  of  pov- 
erty contrasted  strangely  with  the  profuse  display  of 
spleador  with  which  they  were  surrounded.  They  wore 
the  habit  of  secular  priests;  but,  by  their  calm  and 
serious  expression  of  countenance,  their  modest  bearing, 
and  great  humility,  it  was  easy  to  discover  that  they  were 
members  of  a  regular  order.  No  sooner  had  they  made 
their  appearance,  than  Don  Diego  Ilurtado  of  Mendoza, 
Ambassador  of  Charles  V,  stepped  forward  and  shook 
each  by  the  hand  most  affectionately:  the  cardinals  like- 
wise appeared  to  be  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  them, 
while  several  of  the  bishops  treated  them  as  intimate 
friends. 

At  first  many  of  the  strangers  present  inquired  of  each 
other  who  those  young  priests  could  be,  who  were  so  cor- 
dially greeted  by  such  eminent  personages,  and  who  did 
not  hesitate  to  take  their  places  in  the  midst  of  the  au- 
gust assembly,  clothed  as  they  were  in  the  garb  of  poverty. 

The  mystery  was  soon  solved :  it  was  whispered  on 
every  side,  "  Two  of  them  are  the  Theologians  of  the 
Pope,  and  the  other  that  of  Cardinal  Otho,  Bishop  of 
Augsburg;  they  belong  to  the  Society  of  Jesus." 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  55 

Extreme  surprise  now  took  the  place  of  doubt.  The 
Society  of  Jesus  had  been  in  existence  but  five  years, 
and  had  but  a  very  limited  number  of  professed  mem- 
bers, and  yet,  it  was  from,  that  body  that  the  Pope  had 
selected  his  legates  for  the  most  difficult,  important,  and 
perilous  missions;  it  was  also  from  among  the  members 
of  the  same  Order  that  he  chose  the  Theologians  to  rep- 
resent him  and  speak  in  his  name  in  an  (Ecumenical 
Council,  convened  to  defend  the  faith  and  discipline  of 
the  Church,  as  well  as  to  sustain  the  rights  and  preroga- 
tives of  the  Apostolic  See.  Notwithstanding  the  many 
and  exalted  virtues  of  the  young  Fathers,  it  was  much  to 
be  apprehended  that  such  honors  would  excite  much  jeal- 
ousy. Father  Laynez  was  but  thirty-four  years  of  age, 
while  Father  Salmeron  was  only  thirty-one,  and  yet  both 
had  been  selected  by  the  Pope  for  this  most  solemn  occa- 
sion. Father  Lejay  was  present  as  the  representative  of 
the  Bishop  of  Augsburg. 

St.  Ignatius,  alarmed  lest  so  much  honor  and  distinction 
should,  in  the  least,  impair  the  humility  of  the  members 
of  the  society,  had  given  admirable  instructions  to  the 
three  Fathers  who  were  to  take  part  in  the  council,'-^  ad- 
vice which  these  fervent  religious  determined  to  follow 
to  the  letter.  They  were  constantly  to  be  seen  nursing 
the  sick  in  the  hospitals,  visiting  the  prisoners,  instructing 
the  young,  begging  for  the  relief  of  the  indigent,  preach- 
ing, and  hearing  confessions ;  and  all  this  without  ever 
for  one  moment  neglecting  the  important  and  onerous  du- 
ties of  the  council. 

Consulted  daily  by  the  cardinals,  prelates,  and  doctors, 
they  had  to  be  always  ready  to  solve  the  most  difficult 
cases,  and  explain  the  most  intricate  questions.  To  Lay- 
nez, who  had  an  extraordinary  memory,  was  intrusted  the 

*  This  document  will  be  found  in  the  Life  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola. 
7 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

task  of  preparing  a  summary  of  eacli  clay's  discussion  ; 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  acquitted  himself  of  the 
laborious  undertaking  from  the  very  commencement,  cre- 
ated such  a  deep  impression,  that  it  was  decided  that  the 
work  should  be  continued,  preserved,  and  entered  on  the 
records  of  the  council,  word  for  word,  as  it  came  from 
the  pen  of  Laynez. 

The  duty  of  the  two  Theologians  of  the  Pope  was  to 
examine  the  acts  of  the  various  councils,  the  Pontifical 
Bulls,  the  opinions  of  the  Doctors  and  Fathers  of  the 
Church,  upon  which  they  were  to  depend  for  their  argu- 
ments in  defense  of  Catholic  doctrines  against  the  heret- 
ical teachinojs.     While  the  two  Fathers  were  en2:aged  in 

O  CD       CD 

this  laborious  work.  Father  Salmeron  delivered  a  dis- 
course in  Latin,  which  caused  an  immense  sensation  and 
unbounded  enthusiasm.  The  bishops,  one  and  all,  were  of 
opinion  that  a  production  of  such  vast  importance  should 
not  be  lost  to  posterity ;  it  was,  accordingly,  published, 
and  is  still  extant. 

As  a  rule,  but  one  hour  was  accorded  to  each  speaker. 
After  several  times  hearing  Father  Laynez,  whose  elo- 
quence was  equal  to  his  erudition,  and  whose  iron  logic 
completely  annihilated  his  opponents,  it  was  agreed  that 
this  rule  should  not  apply  to  him,  and  that,  to  shorten  the 
discussitDns,  he  should  be  allowed  three  consecutive  hours. 

About  this  time,  a  contagion  spread  throughout  the 
city  of  Trent  and  its  environs,  and  the  council,  on  the 
11th  of  May,  15J:7,  adjourned  to  Bologna.  Charles  V 
disapproved  of  the  removal  of  the  council,  and  several 
of  the  Spanish  and  German  bishops  returned  to  their  re- 
spective dioceses.  The  General  Synod  was  suspended,  and, 
in  the  mean  time,  the  bishops  and  doctors  who  had  ad- 
journed to  Bologna  could  do  nothing  but  prepare  for  the 
labors  of  the  ensuing;  session.  Three  entire  months  were 
employed  in  discussing  dogmatical  questions  on  Penance 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    IGNATIUS    OP    LOYOLA.  57 

Father  Laynez  threw  so  much  light  upon  the  subject,  that, 
at   the  request  of    the  cardinal  legates,  he  committed  to 
writino-  his  arirumcnts   on   each  of  the   Sacraments.     He 
aceomplivshcd  this  task  with  such  ability  as  to  win  the  ap- 
proval  and   plaudits  of  the   entire    synod,  and   upon   his 
opinions  were   based  most  of  the  decrees   issued  by  the 
council.     These   new  triumphs   in    nowise  diminished   the 
humility  of  the  disciples  of  Ignatius.     Outside  those  as- 
semblies they  were  to  be  found  as  before,  ever  poor,  ever 
simple  and  unassuming,  instructing  the  young,  enlighten- 
in"-  the  ijrnorant,  consolins;  and  taking  care  of  the  sick,  and 
beiTiiinii'  for   those  who  were   in    need.     The    legates  had 
prevailed    upon  them  to  accept,  as  a  charity,  new  habits 
more  suitable   to  the  rank    and   position    they  held  amid 
the  doctors  of  the  council.     To  this  they  yielded — only, 
however,   wearing   their  new  apparel  while  actually  pres- 
ent at  the  council,  and  changing   it   for   their  own   poor 
garb  as  soon    as   they  returned   to  their   abode,    so    that 
they  might  not  lose  the  slightest  portion  of  their  spirit 
of  poverty. 

On  the' 10th  September  of  the  same  year,  1547,  the 
Duke  of  Parma  was  assassinated,  to  the  cry  of  '-'•  Liberty  V^ 
Every  one  rushed  to  arms.  The  insurgents  took  posses- 
sion of  the  ducal  palace,  and  the  whole  of  Italy  was 
menaced  with  civil  war.  Under  these  circumstances  it 
was  indispensably  necessary  to  adjourn  the  council,  and 
await  the  advent  of  more  peaceful  times  before  again 
reassembling  it. 

While  Father  Claude  Lejay  expounded  before  the 
council  the  teachings  of  St.  Paul  on  Grace,  the  diocese 
of  Trieste  became  vacant  by  the  demise  of  the  bishop. 
Ferdinand  I  made  immediate  application  for  a  member 
of  the  Order  of  Jesus  to  succeed  to  this  important  See, 
and  he  made  special  mention  of  Lejay  as  being  best 
qualified    to    repulse    the    heretics   who   threatened    that 


58  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

portion  of  his  dominions.-!^  He  was  aware  of  the  pro- 
digious success  which  Lejay  had  met  with  at  Ratis- 
bon,  Ingolstadt,  and  Nuremberg.  He  knew  that  the 
Lutherans  dreaded  equally  the  talents  and  the  zeal  of  the 
good  Father,  and  that  they  regarded  him  as  their  deadliest 
enemy.  It  was  then  Lejay  whom  he  sought  to  establish 
at  Trieste,  as  a  rampart  to  defend  the  faith  against  the 
attack  of  the  enemy. 

Ferdinand  wrote  to  the  Jesuit,  begging  him,  in  the  name 
and  for  the  cause  of  religion,  to  accept  the  vacant  bishopric. 
Dreading  the  honor  thus  attempted  to  be  thrust  upon 
him,  Father  Lejay  immediately  replied  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  him  to  accept  a  burden  which  he  was  too 
weak  to  support.  He  then  addressed  a  letter  to  his  be- 
loved Father  Ignatius,  imploring  him  to  use  all  the  influ- 
ence in  his  power  to  avert  the  calamity  with  which  he 
was  threatened,  and  which  he  so  much  dreaded.  The  re- 
fusal of  the  Jesuit  did  but  increase  the  desire  of  the 
King  to  possess  him.  He  wrote  to  the  Pope,  setting  forth 
the  motives  which  influenced  him,  and  urging  the  PontiflF 
to  command  the  Jesuit  Father  to  accept  the  proposal.  The 
Pope  yielded  to  the  King's  wishes;   but  Ignatius  of  Loy- 

*The  King  of  the  Romans  offered  the  See  of  Trieste  to  Father 
Bobadilla,  to  whom  it  had  first  been  tendered.  M.  Cretineau  Joly 
says  that  the  bishopric  of  Trieste  was  refused  by  Lejay,  and  that, 
the  following  year,  Bobadilla  declined  that  of  Trent.  This  must 
be  an  error  of  name  and  date.  On  the  5th  September,  1546,  Boba- 
dilla wrote  word  to  St.  Ignatius  that  King  Ferdinand  had  offered 
him  the  bishopric  of  Trieste,  and  he  added  :  "  I  declined  it,  say- 
ing to  the  King's  messenger,  that  we  are  men  called  to  humility 
and  poverty,  not  to  honors."  It  vvas  on  the  13th  of  the  same  month 
that  Lejay  wrote  to  the  holy  founder  that  he  had  received  and  re- 
jected the  same  proposal ;  and  elsewhere  we  find,  in  a  letter  from 
Ignatius  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  cited  by  Father  Genelli :  "  The 
King  of  the  Homans,  after  having  tendered  the  bishopric  of  Trieste 
to  several  of  us,  has  given  up  the  idea.  As  to  the  See  of  Trent 
there  is  no  question." 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  59 

ola,  who  feared  nothing  more  than  the  bestowal  of  eccle- 
siastical honors  and  dignities  on  members  of  the  society, 
appealed  to  Margaret  of  Austria,  whose  Director  he  was, 
and  conjured  her  to  obtain  from  the  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
at  least  a  postponement  in  the  appointment  of  Lejay. 
"  Let  His  Holiness,"  said  he,  ''but  deign  to  accord  me  time 
to  write  to  King  Ferdinand,  and  receive  an  answer  from 
His  Majesty  before  finally  deciding.  I  will  pray,  and  cause 
others  to  pray,  in  the  interval,  and  God  our  Lord  will,  I 
hope,  avert  from  us  this  scourge  of  dignities,  which  will  be 
the  ruin  of  our  young  society." 

The  Princess  having  obtained  the  delay  required,  Ig- 
natius wrote  to  the  King,^  and  so  forcibly  pointed  out 
to  him  the  danger  to  which  episcopal  honors  would  ex- 
pose the  society,  the  object  of  which  differed  from  that 
of  any  other  order,  that  the  King  felt  constrained  to 
yield  to  the  humility  of  the  holy  founder.  He,  there- 
fore, addressed  a  letter  to  Paul  III,  to  -the  effect  that, 
overcome  by  this  humility,  he  withdrew  his  request.  Ig- 
natius of  Loyola  did  not  stop  here.  Other  princes  might 
entertain  like  ideas,  and  should  the  Pope  yield  to  their 
demands,  the  company  would  be  deprived  of  its  most  effi- 
cient members;  and  if  the  road  was  thus  once  opened  to 
ambition,  what  would  become  of  that  spirit  of  humility 
and  poverty  which  was  to  be  the  main  strength  of  this 
chosen  band  ? 

Ignatius,  therefore,  hastened  to  the  Vatican,  pleaded  his 
cause,  and  finally  obtained  from  the  Holy  Father  a  prom- 
ise that  he  would  never  compel  a  member  of  the  Society 
of   Jesus   to    accept   ecclesiastical    dignities. f     After  the 

*  This  remarkable  letter  will  be  found  in  the  Ilisioty  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  by  M.  Cretineau  Joly ;  or  in  the  History  of  St.  Ignatiics  of  Loyola. 

■f  The  Jesuits,  by  their  rules,  are  prohibited   from  accepting  eccle- 
siastical dignities,  unless  commanded  to  do   so  by  the  Sovereign 
Pontifl",  under  pain  of  sin. 
7* 


60  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

holy  founder  liad  retired,  Paul  III,  it  is  said,  exclaimed, 
"  This  is  the  first  time  a  Sovereign  Pontiff  ever  had  such 
a  request  made  to  him." 

As  a  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  success  he  had  met 
with,  Ignatius  caused  the  Te  Deum  to  be  chanted. 

VI. 

After  having  for  a  long  time  spared  the  Lutherans, 
of  whom  he  feared  to  make  enemies,  Charles  V  discov- 
ered, at  last,  that  their  doctrines  not  only  attacked  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  but  insidiously  sought  to  sub- 
vert the  bases  o-f  temporal  power.  In  order  to  put  a  stop 
to  them,  he  threatened  to  have  recourse  to  arms.  They 
implored  him  to  accord  them  another  conference,  in  which 
they  contended  that  they  would  be  able  to  convince  the 
Catholics  that  the  truth  was  on  their  side;  '-then,"  added 
they,  "  they  will  leave  the  Church  of  Home  m  a  body, 
and  peace  will  'be  restored."  The  Emperor  acquiesced, 
and  the  conference  was  appointed  to  take  place  at  Ivatis- 
bon,  on  condition  that  all  the  decisions  were  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Council  of  Trent  for  final  approval.  He 
then  sent  for  Father  Bobadilla,  and  confided  to  him  the 
defense  of  the  Church  and  the  Holy  See  in  the  forth- 
comin";  contest  with  the  Protestants.  Bobadilla  hastened 
to  his  post,  and  spoke  in  the  midst  of  an  assembly  com- 
posed of  princes,  bishops,  and  doctors,  and  soon  refuted 
all  the  erroneous  doctrines  put  forth  by  his  adversaries, 
who,  being  unwilling  to  acknowledge  their  defeat,  at- 
tempted to  temporize  and  divide  the  Catholics.  The  dis- 
honest tactics  thus  resorted  to,  being  highly  offensive — in 
fact,  insulting — to  Charles  V,  he  declared  war  against  the 
Duke  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse.  The  Pope 
united  his  forces,  commanded  by  the  Duke  Octavius  Far- 
nese,  with  those  of  the  Emperor;  Cardinal  Alexander  Far- 
nese  being  nominated  legate  to  the  two  armies. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  Gl 

On  the  23d  of  April,  1557,  the  army  crossed  the  P^lbe. 
AnionGi;  tlie  foremost  ranks,  under  the  command  of  Prince 
Farnese,  was  a  priest,  who  was  distinguished  by'his  <>Tave 
and  humble  bearing,  as  well  as  by  his  air  of  fervent  piety. 
He  addressed  the  soldiers,  excited  their  courage,  and  pre- 
dicted for  them  victory.  Perceiving  one  of  them  fall, 
wounded  by  a  bullet,  the  priest  rushed  to  his  assistanc?, 
bore  him  to  the  rear,  and  was  himself  quickly  again  in 
the  thickest  of  the  fight.  The  dying  were  falling  around 
him  ;  he  consoled  them,  and  gave  them  the  last  rites.  The 
wounded  awaited  him  on  every  side,  and  he  went  from 
one  to  the  other  like  a  ministering  angel,  doing  good  to 
all.  At  length,  arrived  on  the  field  of  Muhlburg,  the  bat- 
tle commenced.  It  was  a  most  sanguinary  one.  Again 
the  priest  is  seen  on  the  bloody  field,  in  the  thickest 
of  the  fight ;  and  those  who  hear  the  sound  of  his  voice, 
or  see  the  waving  of  his  hand,  march  forward  with  greater 
courage  and  more  confidence  than  before,  even  unto  death. 
They  no  longer  fear  the  foe,  all  feeling  that,  should  they 
die  beneath  the  fire  of  the  German  heretics,  they  would 
receive  the  holy  consolations  of  religion  in  their  last  mo- 
ments. Suddenly  the  priest  is  seen  to  fall  ;  he  has  re- 
ceived a  wound  in  the  head,  from  which  blood  flows  freely ; 
but  what  of  that?  This  priest  is  a  disciple  of  Ignatius  of 
Loyola ;  he  is  a  hero  !  It  was  Father  Nicolas  Bobadilla  ! 
He  raised  himself  from  the  ground,  and,  though  covered 
with  blood,  he  attended  to  several  soldiers  who  had  fallen, 
like  himself,  beneath  the  enemy's  fire.  He  dressed  the 
wounds  of  some,  heard  the  confessions  of  others,  while  on 
the  dying  he  pronounced  a  last  benediction.  He  had 
foretold  that  the  Catholics  would  be  victorious,  and  the 
issue  verified  the  truth  of  his  prediction.  On  the  24tli 
of  April,  1547,  the  Duke  of  Saxony  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Imperialists. 

Bobadilla,    though    severely  wounded,  did   not  wait   to 


62  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

have  his  wounds  dressed,  but  immediately  after  the  vic- 
tory preached  at  Pnssau,  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  Lutherans.  He  ordered  a  solemn  thanksgiving  for 
the  success  of  the  Catholic  arms,  which  was  complied 
with.  He  next  travelled  through  Germany,  combating 
heretical  doctrines,  and  bringing  back  to  the  fold  of  the 
Church  many  who  had  strayed  beyond  her  pale,  thus 
reaping  an  abundant  harvest  to  the  greater  glory  of  God. 

On  the  arrival  of  Bobadilla  at  Vienna,  Charles  Y  was 
about  promulgating  a  formula  of  faith  which  he  had  him- 
self conceived,  and  to  which  he  wished  every  one  to  con- 
form, until  the  Council  of  Trent  had  arrived  at  a  decision. 
The  Emperor,  always  rather  inclined  to  favor  the  Luther- 
ans, whose  independent  spirit  and  tendency  to  revolu- 
tion he  feared,  had,  by  this  formula,  called  the  ^^Intei-im," 
upon  his  private  authority  and  personal  responsibility, 
tolerated  the  marriage  of  priests  and  communion  under 
both  species. 

On  reaching  Vienna,  Father  Bobadilla  heard  that  the 
Protestants  complained  of  the  few  concessions  that  had 
been  made  in  favor  of  their  tenets,  in  this  "  Interim.'' 
He  forthwith  replied  to  them  in  a  pamphlet,  in  which 
he  refuted  even  those  very  concessions,  and,  in  so  doing, 
did  not  spare  the  royal  authority  whence  they  emanated. 
He  even  attacked  and  combated  this  formula  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Emperor  himself,  who  was  not  accustomed 
to  allow  his  actions  to  be  criticised.  The  Emperor, 
irritated  at  this  bold  step,  ordered  Bobadilla  to  leave 
the  court  on  the  instant,  and  forthwith  to  quit  his  domin- 
ions. Bobadilla  hastened  to  Rome,  and  souirht  admit- 
tance  into  the  house  of  the  Order,  but  the  Father-General 
would  not  receive  him  ;  and,  although  the  step  taken  by 
the  Jesuit  met  with  the  entire  approval  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  Ignatius  persisted  in  condemning  it.  "  If  he 
was  right  in  the  principle,"  said  he,  "  he  was  wrong  in 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.  IGNATIUS    OP    LOYOLA.  63 

the  form.  We  must  never,  even  in  tlie  defense  of  the  faith 
and  the  interests  of  the  Church,  be  wanting  in  that  re- 
spect which  is  due  to  royalty  and  majesty." 

The  check  tlius  applied  to  the  over-zealous  Jesuit  was 
a  source  of  crreat  exultation  to  the  heretics — a  fortunate 
occurrence  for  the  enemies  of  the  society.  Never  was 
intelligence  spread  with  such  rapidity — never  a  circum- 
stance seized  with  so  much  avidity  by  the  malicious. 
The  new  Order  had  obtained  too  much  popularity  and  re- 
nown in  the  world  not  to  have  envious  enemies;  besides, 
from  its  very  origin,  its  Divine  Chief  had  pointed  to  the 
Cross  as  the  emblem  of  persecutions  and  trials  which 
would  beset  them  in  their  onward  course.  The  disciples 
could  not  expect  better  treatment  than  the  Master ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  let  us  not  forget  the  Divine  promise,  "  I 
will  befriend  you." 

The  Jesuits  were  established  in  several  of  the  towns 
of  Spain,  Salamanca,  not  wishing  to  be  behindhand,  had 
likewise  applied  for  a  college,  and,  in  the  early  part  of  1548, 
Fathers  Sevillan,  Sanchez,  Capella,  and  jMiguel  de  Torres 
were  sent  there  to  establish  one.  But  the  minds  of  the 
people  had  been  so  powerfully  acted  upon,  that  the  good 
religious,  on  arriving  at  their  destination,  found  the  house 
which  was  intended  for  their  reception  completely  stripped. 
They  had  a  chapel  whose  only  decoration  was  the  four 
bare  walls.  One  of  the  Fathers  made  a  drawing  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  on  paper,  which  he  attached  to  the  wall, 
as  an  altar-piece,  and  there,  before  this  poor  representa- 
tion of  the  ever-blessed  Mother  of  God,  the  four  Fathers 
offered  up  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  relying  upon 
Providence  to  provide  them  with  the  means  of  more  fit- 
tingly worshiping  and  paying  due  homage  and  respect  to 
the  Divine  Mnjesty. 

This  incident  may  convey  some  idea  of  the  personal 
privations   they    had    to    suffer.      Frequently   they    were 


64  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

.without  the  common  necessaries  of  life.  But,  neverthe- 
less, they  never  faltered  nor  wavered  in  their  meekness 
and  habitual  benevolence ;  on  the  contrary,  their  zeal  and 
devotion  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  the  welfare  of 
mankind,  were  fortified  and  increased.  Their  attentions 
to  the  unfortunate  sick  in  the  hospitals,  their  care  of  the 
poor  children,  and  all  their  many  other  occupations,  were 
as  zealously  discharged  as  if  they  received  the  highest 
pecuniary  reward.  So  many  estimable  virtues  were  bound 
to  secure  for  tnem  the  respect  of  every  class,  and,  in  fact, 
very  soon  they  were  beloved  and  courted  by  all.  Avail- 
ing themselves  of  the  good-will  thus  evinced  toward 
them,  they  took  occasion  to  draw  the  hearts  of  those 
they  had  thus  touched  more  closely  to  God.  Such  was 
the  state  of  affairs  when,  all  at  once,  as  sudden,  as  unex- 
pected, and  as  astounding  as  the  shock  of  an  earthquake, 
a  report  was  spread  that  the  Jesuits  were  no  others  than 
the  precursors  of  Antichrist !  The  truth  of  this  was 
proved  by  a  pamphlet  written  by  one  Doctor  Melchior 
Cano,  a  learned  Dominican  and  popular  preacher.  The 
thing  was  so  certain,  that  this  same  doctor  had  just  pro- 
claimed from  his  pulpit  these  words,  which  were  listened 
to  and  repeated  by  the  people  :  "  Brethren,  the  day  of  the 
last  judgment  is  at  hand  !  Antichrist  is  about  to  appear, 
and  we  already  behold  his  precursors  among  us.  All  the 
signs  by  which  he  is  to  be  known  I  can  discover  in  the 
priests  of  the  Society  of  Jesus ;  and  it  is  I,  Melchior 
Oano,  who  have  been  designated  in  the  Holy  Scripture  to 
expose  these  hypocrites."  For  the  popular  credulity  of 
Spain,  this  was  an  astounding  and  alarming  revelation. 
Unless  the  Jesuits  were  burned  alive,  Spain  was  irretriev- 
ably lost.  Her  sons  would  be  handed  over,  body  and 
soul,  to  the  infernal  spirits.  No  one  dreamed  of  reply- 
ing to  Melchior  Cano's  assertions,  and  pointing  out  to 
him  that  his  absurd  accusations  were  only  a  repetition  of 


GENERALSHIP   OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  G5 

the  same  assaults  to  which  every  religious  order  had  been 
subjected,  from  its  very  foundation,  not  excluding  his 
own,  the  Dominican.  Not  one  member  of  his  own  mon- 
astery shared  in  his  views  and  feelings  against  the  Jes- 
uits, yet  they  could  not  prevail  upon  him  to  desist  from 
publicly  attacking  them. 

Very  soon,  however,  the  Superior  of  the  Friars  Preach- 
ers interfered,  and  personally  intervened  in  favor  of  the 
Jesuits,  by  addressing  an  encyclical  letter  to  the  religious 
of  his  Order.  This  letter  bore  date  December  10,  1548. 
Melchior  Cano,  blinded  by  prejudice,  would  not  even  listen 
to  the  voice  of  his  Superior,  and  disregarded  even  that  of 
the  Holy  See.  In  1552  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  the 
Canary  Islands.  This  nomination  was  attributed  to  the 
Jesuits,  but  it  has  never  been  proved  that  it  was  made  at 
their  solicitation. 

The  calumnies  of  Melchior  ao;ainst  the  Jesuits  had 
resounded  throughout  Spain.  Every-where  the  world  is 
the  same  :  what  they  most  admire  one  day,  they  totally 
disregard  the  next.  During  the  time  that  the  Society  of 
Jesus  was  thus  persecuted  by  its  enemies,  Providence 
deprived  them  of  their  most  powerful  protector,  by  the 
death  of  Pope  Paul  III,  who  was  succeeded  by  the  Car- 
dinal del  Monte,  under  the  title  of  Julius  III. 

VII. 

Francis  Borgia,  Duke  of  Gandia,  grandson  of  the  King 
of  Naples,  and  closely  allied  to  all  the  sovereigns  of  Eu- 
rope, arrived  at  Eome,  at  the  end  of  September,  1550,  and 
proceeded  to  the  house  of  the  Jesuits,  accompanied  by 
the  cardinals  and  Roman  princes  who  had  gone  forth  to 
welcome  him.  He  was  attended  by  his  suite  and  servants, 
to  the  number  of  fifty.  For  two  years  the  Duke  had 
been  connected  with  the  society  by  secret  vows  ;  but,  by 
the  advice  of  Ignatius,  he  had  remained  in  the  world  for 


66  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

the  purpose  of  attending  to  the  affairs  and  interests  of 
his  eight  children,  and  properly  disposing  of  his  posses- 
sions. The  time,  however,  had  now  arrived  when  he  was 
to  make  his  solemn  vows,  and  openly  declare  himself  a 
member  of  the  Order.  He,  therefore,  on  the  15th  Jan- 
uary, 1551,  addressed  a  letter  to  Charles  V,  soliciting  per- 
mission to  resign  his  office,  the  honors  of  the  court,  and 
the  world,  in  order  that  he  might  consecrate  his  life,  in 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  to  the  service  of  Almighty  God  and 
of  the  Church.  The  Emperor  answered,  without  delay: 
"  I  will  not  contend  for  you  with  the  great  Master  you 
have  chosen." 

But  Francis  Borgia  did  not  remain  at  Rome  until  the 
imperial  answer  arrived.  Pope  Julius  III,  to  whom  his 
intentions  were  known,  wished  to  ofier  him  a  cardinal's 
hat,  and  acquainted  him  with  his  intention.  The  Duke, 
who,  in  his  humility,  had  no  higher  ambition  on  earth 
than  to  become  a  Jesuit,  had  sought  and  obtained  per- 
mission to  quit  Rome  at  as  early  a  day  as  possible,  and 
to  return  to  his  own  country,  in  order  to  escape  the  im- 
portunities of  the  Pontifical  Court. ^ 

The  fact  of  the  Viceroy  of  Catalonia  becoming  a  mem- 
ber of  an  Order  which  had,  during  the  two  preceding  years, 
been  so  loudly  decried  throughout  several  towns  of  Spain, 
caused  considerable  surprise.  The  holy  life  which  Fran- 
cis Borgia  led  was  generally  known.  His  selection  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  appeared  to  give  to  the  calumniators  of 
that  Order  the  most  positive  contradiction  of  the  slanders 
that  had  been  circulated  airainst  it.  Soon  he  estab- 
lished-  colleges,  or  houses  of  the  Order,  in  all  the  large 
towns  which  he  visited ;  and  youths  of  the  most  noble 
birth  hastened  to  him  in  numbers,  seekino;  admission  into 
the  society.     He  had  a  happy   tact  in  attracting  around 

*  See  Life  of  St.  Francis  Borgia. 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   IGNATIUS   OF   LOYOLA.  67 

him  young  noblemen,  and  in  forming  them  to  habits  of 
the  most  solid  virtue.  Among  his  disciples  were  Don 
Sancho  of  Castile,  Don  Pedro  of  Navarre,  and  Don  Bar- 
tolomeo  of  Bustamente.  The  celebrated  Juan  of  Avila, 
the  intimate  friend  of  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  and  of  the  Duke 
of  Gandia,  feeling  himself  unworthy  to  join  the  ranks  of 
this  chosen  society,  which  he  could  not  but  admire,  re- 
cruited for  it  many  noble  and  worthy  members  from 
among  the  learned  and  pious  men  who  were  under  his 
direction.  Of  these  were  Don  Diego  de  Guzman,  and 
Don  Gaspar  Loarte.  The  latter  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  doctors  of  that  period.  At  the  same  time,  Don 
Antonio  de  Cordova,  Rector  of  the  University  of  Sala- 
manca, for  whom  Charles  V  had  solicited  the  dignity  of 
cardinal,  declined  that  honor,  solely  that  he  might  bid 
adieu  forever  to  the  riches,  pomps,  and  honors  of  the 
world,  by  assuming  the  humble  habit  of  the  Jesuit. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  1552,  the  Institution  of  St. 
Ignatius  was  in  as  flourishing  a  condition  in  Spain  as  it 
was  in  Portugal,  where  no  opposition  presented  itself  to 
its  propagation,  and  where,  moreover,  the  vocations  were 
so  numerous,  that  the  College  of  Coimbra  alone  was  able  to 
furnish  missionaries  to  all  the  colonies  of  Asia,  Africa,  and 
America.  The  Cardinal-Bishop  of  Evora,  brother  of  the 
King,  being  desirous  of  having  a  college  of  Jesuits  in  his 
diocese,  conferred  thereupon  with  Louis  of  Grenada. 
"  Your  Eminence  could  not  do  better,"  replied  the  illus- 
trious Dominican;  "for  it  is  an  Apostolical  Order,  which 
labors  with  all  its  power  to  reenkindle  the  faith  and  to 
save  souls." 

In  the  mean  time.  Pope  Julius  III  had  ordered  the  de- 
liberations of  the  council  to  be  resumed;  and,  accordingly, 
the  first  sitting  was  held  at  Trent,  on  the  1st  of  May, 
1551.  In  the  following  July,  Fathers  Laynez  and  Sal- 
meron  joined  the  council,  in  the  same  capacity  as  before, 
8 


68  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS, 

of  Theologians  of  the  Holy  See,  Julius  III  had  judged  of 
their  qualifications'  from  their  conduct  in  the  first  council, 
at  which  he  was  present,  while  yet  Cardinal  del  Monte,  and 
he,  therefore,  felt  that  he  could  not  do  better  than  adopt 
the  selection  of  his  predecessor.  The  title  of  Orators  of  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  was  conferred  upon  them,  giving  them 
precedence  of  speech  over  other  members  of  the  council. 
Father  Laynez,  in  his  first  address  to  the  assembly,  said  : 
"As  the  dogmas  of  the  faith  can  only  be  defined  by  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church,  I  declare  that  I  will  not  quote,  in  support  of  my 
opinion,  any  text  of  any  Father  or  Doctor  of  the  Church 
whose  entire  works  I  shall  not  have  first  read,  or  from 
which  I  shall  not  have  extracted  all  the  passages  which 
give  evident  proofs  that  such  is  really  the  opinion  of  the 
author." 

This  declaration  produced  the  most  profound  astonish- 
ment. Each  one  put  to  himself  the  question,  how  it  could 
be  possible  to  grapple  with  and  accomplish  such  gigantic 
mental  labors,  and  at  the  same  time  exercise  not  only  the 
priestly  functions,  but,  also,  practice  works  of  mercy  and 
charity  with  such  ardent  and  zealous  devotion  ?  In  that 
session,  as  in  the  first  one,  the  learned  Jesuit  excited  the 
most  enthusiastic  admiration. 

The  effect  of  these  herculean  labors  at  length  told  upon 
his  constitution,  and  Father  Laynez  was  prostrated  with 
illness.  Tliereupon  the  council  decided  that  the  regular 
sittings  should  be  discontinued  until  he  was  again  in  a  po- 
sition to  enlighten  them  with  his  extraordinary  talents. 
This  was  the  highest  compliment  that  the  prelates  and 
doctors  could  pay  to  the  learning  and  eloquence  of  the 
humble  Jesuit.  The  Bishop  of  Modena,  at  the  same  time, 
wrote  as  follows  :  "  Fathers  Laynez  and  Salmeron  have  so 
wonderfully  refuted  the  Lutheran  heresies  on  the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  that  I  esteem  myself  highly  favored 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  69 

in  having  been  permitted  to  live  for  a  time  with  these 
learned  and  holy  Fathers." 

In  the  month  of  April,  1552,  the  heretics  took  up  arms 
against  their  sovereign,  and,  after  having  gained  posses- 
sion of  Augsburg,  they  threatened  Innspruck  and  Trent. 
It  was  impossible  for  the  council,  in  the  midst  of  such 
dangers,  to  resume  its  sittings  ;  it  was,  therefore,  sus- 
pended, and  finally  indefinitely  adjourned. 

Charles  V  could  no  longer  be  in  doubt  as  to  the  se- 
cret intentions  of  the  Protestants.  He  perceived,  too 
clearly,  that  it  was  the  very  basis  of  authority  that  they 
sought  to  undermine  and  destroy.  In  the  first  instance, 
it  was  the  authority  of  the  Church  they  attacked,  but, 
finding  themselves  defeated  in  every  discussion  by  the 
glorious  champions  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  they  threw 
ofi"  the  mask  of  hypocrisy,  and  attacked  the  Emperor 
himself,  in  his  city  of  Innspruck.  The  final  measures 
taken  by  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  to  save  his  states  from 
the  effects  of  their  pernicious  doctrines  were,  perhaps, 
not  unconnected  with  the  immediate  cause  of  this  insur- 
rection. 

Duke  William  of  Bavaria  had  confided  two  theological 
professorships  in  the  University  of  Ingolstadt  to  the 
Jesuits,  who  were  looked  upon  by  the  Lutherans  as  their 
most  formidable  adversaries  and  inveterate  enemies. 
These  chairs  were  filled  by  Salmeron  and  Canisius,  with 
a  superiority  of  talent  that  was  never  questioned  by  either 
their  enemies  or  their  rivals,  and  each  day  they  regained 
a  portion  of  that  which  the  heretics  had  wrested  from  the 
Church.  The  holiness  of  their  lives  added  still  more  to 
their  success,  and  attracted  the  hearts  of  all. 

In  the  following  year,  1550,  Canisius  was  prevailed 
upon  to  accept  the  office  of  Rector  of  the  University  ; 
but,  nevertheless,  he  still  continued  to  lead  a  life  of  hu- 
mility, and   all  the  emoluments    arising   from  this  office 


70  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY  OF    JESUS. 

were  employed  in  good  works.  The  Lutheran  partisans 
had  insinuated  into  every  department  of  education  the 
venom  of  their  doctrines.  Father  Canisius  quickly  dis- 
covered and  extirpated  the  evil.  He  also  brought  about 
reforms,  eifected  many  important  improvements,  and  did 
so  much  good,  that  in  the  University  Register  of  Ingol- 
stadt,  which  is  still  extant,  will  be  found  testimony  of 
the  veneration  and  gratitude  which  the  young  rector  had 
merited.  On  the  pages  which  bear  his  name  he  is  desig- 
nated the  "incomparable  Father  Canisius." 

After  Canisius  had  completely  removed  the  scourge  of 
heresy  from  the  town  of  Ingolstadt,  several  German 
bishops  solicited  him  to  come  into  their  dioceses,  to  aid, 
by  his  learning  and  zeal,  in  reforming  the  people.  Duke 
William  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Albert,  to  whom 
Canisius  communicated  the  request  that  had  been  made 
to  him  by  the  bishops,  and  to  which  the  Duke  refused  to 
accede.  King  Ferdinand,  brother-in-law  to  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  wrote  to  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  and  begged  him  to 
allow  the  learned  Canisius  to  proceed  to  Vienna,  which 
heresy  threatened  to  invade.  Ignatius  replied  that  he 
could  not  afford  to  part  entirely  with  the  learned  Father, 
but  that  he  might  go  for  a  time;  and,  accordingly,  Cani- 
sius set  out  for  the  Austrian  capital.  This  was  far  from 
proving  satisfactory  to  the  King,  who  well  knew  that, 
although  heresy  would  be  refuted  and  repulsed  by  the 
learned  Father,  it  would  not  be  long  in  finding  its  way 
back  after  his  departure.  It  was,  then,  of  the  highest 
importance  that  there  should  be  opposed  to  these  heretical 
teachers  a  body  of  volunteers  ever  ready  to  meet  them, 
and  vigorously  to  defend  the  faith  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church.  The  only  way  in  which  this  could  be  at- 
tained was  to  establish  in  the  capital  itself  a  college  of 
the  Jesuits. 

Having  this  all-important  end   in  view,  Ferdinand,  in 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  71 

the  most  courteous  but  pressing  terms,  urged  upon  Igna- 
tius to  spare  him  some  members  of  the  Order,  which  he 
finally  did,  to  the  number  of  ten.  To  Father  Lejay  was 
intrusted  the  organization  of  the  college.  On  the  6th 
of  August,  1552,  however,  this  holy  man  was  called  to 
receive  the  rewards  of  his  arduous  labors,  and  the  many 
virtues  which  adorned  his  character  as  a  true  religious. 
His  work  in  Vienna  was  far  from  completion,  and  the 
duty  of  continuing  what  he  had  so  well  begun  devolved 
upon  Father  Canisius. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  not  a  single  priest  had 
been  ordained,  and  the  clergy  were  gradually  dying  away, 
without  being  replaced  ;  the  Catholics  were  living  with- 
out instruction  or  the  practice  of  their  religion.  Canisius 
not  only  preached  in  the  churches,  but  taught  in  the 
University,  enlightening  and  converting  many,  having 
ever  before  him  the  necessities  of  future  generations. 
He  won  the  affections  and  the  confidence  of  the  young, 
whom  he  encouraged  and  fortified,  and  from  amons;  them 
selected  fifty,  whom  he  placed  in  a  suitable  building  ad- 
joining the  college,  where  he  set  them  to  study,  and  to 
prepare  themselves  to  enter  the  service  of  Almighty  God; 
and  their  vocation,  developing  itself  in  this  atmosphere 
of  learning,  piety,  and  virtue,  gave  hopes  of  the  most 
beneficial  future  for  religion.  This  seminary  was  estab- 
lished on  the  same  plan  as  that  adopted  by  St.  Ignatius 
for  the  Roman  College.^ 

Ignatius,  constantly  occupied  in  providing  for  the  fu- 
ture necessities  of  religion,  by  the  education  of  youth, 
and  greatly  afflicted  at  the  dangers  that  threatened  the 
faith  in  Germany,  where  there  was  such  a  lack  of  priests, 
and  where  the  Jesuits  were  totally  inadequate  to  .the  ar- 


*  A  full  account  of  the  foundation  of  this  college  will  be  found  in 
the  History  of  St.  Ignatius. 
8* 


72  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

duous  duties  of  the  mission,  conceived  the  idea  of  erect- 
ino"  a  colleire  wherein  should  be  educated  such  youths  of 
Germany  as  had  returned  to  tlie  bosom  of  the  Church. 
This  college  was,  in  fact,  to  become  a  nursery  for  priests, 
wherein  the  German  clergy  would  be  renewed,  and  the 
Catholic  faith  be  sustained  or  reestablished  in  the  various 
states  which  had  been  demoralized  by  the  baneful  effects 
of  heretical  teachings. 

Ignatius   had   not,    at   that  time,    the   means   at   his   dis- 
posal, necessary  for  the  erection  of  this  college,  but  Provi- 
dence,  who   had    inspired    him   with   the   noble   idea,    also 
furnished   him   with   the   means   of    carrying   it   out.*      On 
the    31st    of   August,    1552,    Pope    Julius    III    issued    his 
bull  founding  this  important   institution,  and  empowered 
the  rector   to  confer  the  degree   of  Doctor  on   all    those 
students  who  proved    themselves   entitled  to  the  distinc- 
tion.     In  the  following  October  the  college  was  opened, 
and    eighteen    students  were  admitted,  which   number,   a 
few  days  afterward,  had  increased   to  thirty.     When  the 
intelligence  of  the  formation  of  this  new  college  reached 
the    ears    of   the  heretics,   their  anger  'knew  no  bounds. 
"Had  not,  then,  Ignatius  enough  with  his  own  society?" 
exclaimed  Kemnitz,  one  of  their  principal  leaders.     "  Was 
it    not    sufficient    that    he   should    have    us    attacked    by 
strangers,  that    he    must    now   set   our    own   countrymen 
against  us  ?" 

VIII. 

The  Cardinal-Bishop  of  Paris,  John  de  Bellay,  was 
held  in  high  estimation  at  the  Court  of  Francis  I ;  and, 
at  the  decease  of  that  monarch,  he  essayed  to  turn  to  the 
best  account  the  royal  friendship  with  which  he  had  been 


*  See  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  by  M.  Cretineau  Joly  ;  also, 
History  of  St.  Ignatius. 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   IGNATIUS   OF    LOYOLA.  73 

honored,  and  brought  into  play  all  the  resources  at  his 
disposal  to  win  the  favor  and  patrona<:;e  of  Henry  II. 
But  he  soon  discovered  that  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  enjoyed 
the  confidence  and  iriendship  of  the  King  to  such  a  de- 
gree as  to  leave  no  hope  for  him  to  rank  more  than  sec- 
ond in  the  good  graces  of  his  sovereign.  With  this  the 
Cardinal  could  not  feel  satisfied;  and,  despairing  of  ever 
being  able  to  compete  successfully  with  his  rival,  he  de- 
sired to  leave  the  capital,  and  even  France  itself,  and  to 
take  refuire  in  Rome,  where  he  obtained  the  consent  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  resign  the  bishopric  of  Paris 
in  favor  of  one  of  his  relations,  Eustache  de  Bel  lay, 
President  of  the  Parliament. 

On  accepting  the  bishopric,  Eustache,  however,  unhap- 
pily, did  not  forget  his  feelings  of  resentment  against  the 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  an  enemy, 
simply  because  he  was  esteemed  and  consulted  by  the 
King;  or,  rather,  perhaps,  for  the  reason  that,  under  the 
old  regime,  the  Bishop  of  Paris  was  all-powerful,  pos- 
sessing great  privileges,  while,  under  Henry  II,  he  was 
simply  Bishop  of  the  First  Diocese  of  France.  This  was 
another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the  ambitious  are 
never  satisfied.  But,  besides  this,  Eustache  had  es- 
poused the  cause  of  his  predecessor  and  relative,  and  he 
was  not  of  a  character  to  yield  one  iota.  The  Cardinal 
loved  and  appreciated  the  Jesuits,  and  desired  to  sec 
them  established  in  Paris,  that  tlie  youth  might,  under 
them,  be  instructed  and  modelled  into  true  Christians;  so 
that  heresy  might  find  io  them  an  impassable  barrier;  for 
every  effort  was  being  made  by  the  heretical  teachers  to 
insinuate  themselves  into  the  University.  The  King  en- 
tirely concurred  in  the  views  of  the  Cardinal,  and  had 
granted  letters  patent  authorizing  the  establishment  of 
the  Jesuits  in  the  French  capital;  but  the  Parliament 
was  opposed  to  this,  and  refused  to   record   them ;    they 


74  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

contented  themselves  with  simply  sending  a  remonstrance 
upon  the  subject  to  the  King.  The  King  insisted,  but 
the  Parliament  again  refused  to  comply,  and  renewed  its 
remonstrance,  and,  in  addition,  appealed  to  the  Theolog- 
ical Faculty,  and  to  the  Bishop  of  Paris. 

The  prelate,  thus  finding  an  excuse  for  openly  oppos- 
ing the  King,  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  and  the  entire  court, 
did  not  allow  the  opportunity  to  pass  by.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  Kino-  and  the  Cardinal  were  in  favor  of  the 
Jesuits ;  while,  on  the  other,  Eustache  de  Bellay  was  op- 
posed to  them,  and,  consequently,  took  sides  with  the 
Parliament  and  the  University.  The  King,  however,  was 
not  the  less  firm  in  urging  Parliament  to  yield;  and  then 
it  was  that  there  arose  against  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits 
the  most  violent  storm  of  opposition  that  it  had  as  yet 
encountered.  The  theologians  of  the  University  declared 
the  society  to  be  dangerous  to  the  faith  and  royal 
power,  as  well  as  to  all  religious  orders.  It  was  de- 
nounced from  the  pulpits,  and  by  the  curates,  as  the 
promulgator  of  several  heresies,  and  as  the  teacher  of 
the  most  dangerous  doctrines.  There  was  issued  against 
it  a  host  of  pamphlets  and  infamous  libels,  which  were 
secretly  slipped  under  the  doors  of  the  houses,  and  dis- 
tributed by  thousands  in  the  streets.  They  even  went 
so  far  as  to  circulate  the  same  documents  in  the  churches. 
The  Protestants  were  jubilant,  and  loudly  applauded  this 
proceeding;  and  the  theologians  of  the  University,  the 
curates,  and  the  Bishop  of  Paris,  siding  with  them,  they 
triumphantly  laughed  at  the  persecuted  Jesuits. 

The  Holy  See,  true  to  its  promise  to  be  the  protector 
of  the  society,  defended  it  at  the  French  court ;  but 
Eustache  de  Bellay,  in  order  to  gratify  his  self-love,  did 
not  hesitate  to  place  himself  in  opposition  even  to  the 
Sovereign  Pontiif ;    he  even  prohibited  the  Jesuits   from 


GENERALSHIP  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS  OF  LOYOLA.     75 

exercising  their  priestly  functions  throughout  the  extent 
of  his  jurisdiction.  The  Jesuits,  thus  pursued  and  per- 
secuted, crossed  the  Seine,  there  to  beg  shelter  at  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Germain-des-Pres,  which  was  held  directly 
from  the  Holy  See,  and  the  jurisdiction  of  which  ex- 
tended over  the  entire  Faubourg  St.  Germain.  The  abbot 
received  them  with  open  arms,  and  gave  them  full  au- 
thority to  continue  their  labors,  from  which  had  resulted 
so  much  good  since  their  arrival  in  Paris.  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine,  who  had  been  sent  to  Rome  by  the  King,  had 
just  reached  the  Eternal  City,  accompanied  by  Rene 
Benoit,  Claude  Despence,  Jerome  de  Sauchieres,  (subse- 
quently elevated  to  the  dignity  of  Cardinal),  and  Crespin 
de  Brichanteau,  four  of  the  most  learned  and  renowned 
Doctors  of  tne  Sorbonne,  and  all  of  whom  had  signed 
the  decree.  The  Society  of  Jesus  was  the  more  formi- 
dable as  a  rival,  that  its  members  were  most  celebrated 
for  their  learning  and  rare  qualities. 

Ignatius  sought  an  interview  with  Cardinal  de  Lorraine, 
to  whom  he  clearly  explained  the  plan  and  end  of  the  so- 
ciety, and  begged  that  a  conference  might  be  held  between 
the  four  theologians  who  had  accompanied  him,  and  four 
members  of  the  society.  Finally  this  was  agreed  upon, 
and  the  conference  was  held  in  the  presence  of  the  Cardi- 
nal. The  theologians  appointed  by  the  Jesuits  were  Fa- 
thers Laynez,  Olave,  Polanco,  and  Frusis.  Father  Olave, 
who  was  a  Frenchman,  and  a  Doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  was 
too  happy  to  enter  the  lists  in  such  a  cause,  and  to  combat 
such  opponents;  victory  appeared  to  him  certain.  The 
other  three  had  also  studied  and  taken  their  deiirrees  in 
Paris.  The  triumph  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  conference  was 
complete.  The  University  theologians,  forced  to  acknowl- 
edge their  defeat,  declared  that  the  decree  had  been  issued 
in  ignorance  of  the  real  facts.     Such  a  declaration,  written 


K 12 


7d  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

and  signed  by  adversaries  of  such  high  standing^  was  not 
only  valuable  at  the  time,  but  was  calculated  to  prove  of 
inestimable  utility  for  the  future. 

Since  the  suspension  of  the  sittings  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  Father  Laynez  had  resided  at  the  College  of  Padua. 
He  was  devoting  himself,  with  his  accustomed  zeal,  to  the 
exercises  of  the  holy  ministry,  and  to  the  duties  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  bishops,  preparatory  to  the  next  meeting 
of  the  Council,  when  he  was  nominated  Provincial  of  Italy, 
in  the  place  of  Father  Brouet. 

Father  Laynez,  whose  humility  was  only  equalled  by  his 
learning,  could  not,  at  first,  be  prevailed  upon  to  accept 
this  charge,  and  wrote  ih  his  beloved  Superior,  the  Gen- 
eral, begging  him  to  make  choice  of  one  of  his  brothers 
more  worthy  of  the  responsible  office,  addlhg :  "  I  feel 
that  as  yet  I  do  not  know  how  to  obey  well  enough  to  be 
able  to  command  well."  But  Ignatius  insisted,  and  com- 
manded him,  under  pain  of  disobedience,  to  accept  the 
charo-e  which  had  been  assigned  him.  There  was  no 
choice  but  to  submit,  which  he  at  once  did. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  complained  to  his  Superior 
that  his  most  distinguished  and  gifted  members  were  taken 
from  him  and  sent  to  Home,  where,  he  thought,  they  were 
less  needed  than  in  his  own  province.  To  this  complaint 
the  holy  founder  replied :  "  The  house  at  Rome  is  the 
centre  and  very  home  of  the  society.  It  is  from  the  Pon- 
tifical City  that  nearly  all  our  Fathers  have  been  sent 
forth  to  spread  themselves  in  every  part  of  the  world ;  it 
is,  therefore,  at  Rome  that  our  brightest  lights  must 
shine."  To  Laynez  these  motives  were  far  from  proving 
satisfactory,  and  he  rejoined,  adding  other  remarks,  in 
which  he  endeavored  to  point  out  the  necessity  of  retain- 
ing in  his  province  learned  professors  and  preachers,  capa- 
ble of  combating  victoriously  the  enemies  of  the  Church. 
St.   Ignatius,   after   reiterating    the   explanations   he   had 


GENERALSHIP    OP    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  77 

already  given,  censured  the  persistence  of  Laynez,  and 
concluded  thus  :  "  Keflect  thereupon,  and  inform  nie  if  you 
feel  that  you  have  been  in  fault;  and  if  you  consider  your- 
self guilty,  tell  me  what  penance  you  are  disposed  to  un- 
dergo for  your  fault." 

Father  Laynez  was  one  of  the  first  disciples  of  Igna- 
tius, his  bosom  friend,  and  one  of  the  most  energetic  and 
able  members  of  the  society — a  shining  light  of  the 
Church ;  but,  for  all  this,  he  was  the  more  humble.  The 
letter  of  his  beloved  General  reached  him  at  Florence. 
The  efi'ect  that  it  produced  upon  him,  and  the  profit  he 
derived  from  it,  will  be  better  understood  from  his  own 
words.     Here  is  his  answer  : 

"Father: 

'*  When  the  letter  of  your  reverence  reached  me,  I  turned  to 
God;  and,  after  offering  up  a  prayer,  with  eyes  overflowing  with 
tears — a  rare  occurrence  with  me — this  is  the  decision  I  have  come 
to,  and  which  I  now  confirm,  with  tears  in  my  eyes :  I  desire  that 
your  reverence,  in  whose  hands  I  place  myself,  unreservedly,  I 
desire,  I  say,  and  I  ask  it  for  the  love  of  Jesus,  that,  as  a  punish- 
ment for  my  sins,  and  to  subdue  my  unruly  passions,  which  occa- 
sioned them,  you  would  withdraw  me  from  the  government  of  the 
province,  from  preaching  and  study,  so  as  to  divest  me  of  every 
thing  but  my  breviai'y;  that  you  would  make  me  beg  my  way  to 
Rome,  and  that  there  you  would  employ  me  until  my  death  in  the 
lowest  occupation  of  the"  house  ;  or,  should  I  be  unfit  for  that,  that 
3"0U  will  order  me  to  spend  the  remainder  of  my  life  in  teaching 
the  elements  of  grammar,  having  no  consideration  for  me,  and 
never  looking  upon  me  but  as  the  dust  of  the  earth.  This  is  what 
I  choose,  first  of  all,  for  my  penance." 

Thus  he  wrote,  and  thus  he  condemned  himself — he 
who  had  attracted  the  admiration  of  the  entire  Council 
of  Trent;  he  whom  the  Sacred  College  had  solicited  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff"  to  clothe  with  the  Roman  purple,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  enlightened  by  his  brilliant 
talents  and  superior  knowledge.     Such  were  the  virtues 


78  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  the  disciples  of  St.  Ignatius  ;  such  were  the  examples 
they  left  to  their  successors.  The  holy  founder  would 
not  entertain  the  severe  self-imposed  penance  thus  sug- 
gested by  his  dear  son.  Born  a  lover  of  study,  to  de- 
prive Laynez  of  his  books,  of  his  mental  food,  would 
have  been  at  once  to  do  injustice  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  Church,  to  detract  from  the  honor  of  the  society, 
and  to  injure  also  the  precious  life  of  the  humble  and 
gifted  Jesuit.  In  lieu  of  the  severe  penance  thus  sought, 
Ignatius  ordered  him  to  prepare  a  system  or  compendium 
of  theology,  and,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  work,  he  ac- 
corded him  two  assistants,  inspectors  of  colleges,  Fathers 
Viole  and  Martin  Olave. 

On  the  23d  of  May,  1555,  Cardinal  Carafa,  General  of 
the  Order  of  Theatines,  was  raised  to  the  Popedom,  under 
the  title  of  Paul  IV.  He  had  always  been  considered  as 
unfavorable  to  the  Jesuits,  and  it  was  anticipated  that  he 
would  oppose  them  ;  and  Ignatius  himself  was,  at  first, 
fearful  of  this,  but  he  very  soon  discovered  that  he  was 
mistaken.  True,  the  General  of  the  Theatines  miijht 
have  seen  with  feelings  of  rivalry  the  wonderful  prog- 
ress and  success  of  a  society  which,  although  so  re- 
cently founded,  had  become  so  celebrated  and  popular 
throughout  the  entire  world  ;  but,  when  elevated  to  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  he  only  saw  the  great  and  important 
services  rendered  to  the  Church  by  the  valiant  and  he- 
roic members  of  that  chosen  society.  His  first  solicitude 
was  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  talented  Father 
Laynez  in  his  counsels,  and  he  expressed  a  desire  to 
create  him  Cardinal.  This  fact  having  been  intimated 
to  Laynez,  it  caused  him  much  uneasiness,  and  he  com- 
plained to  his  good  Father,  St.  Ignatius,  of  the  honors 
which  were  threatened  to  be  heaped  upon  him.  The 
holy  founder  wrote  to  console  him,  saying:  "The  Pope 
is  too    just  to    do  violence  to  the  humility  of  our  little 


GENEllALblUr    OF    ST.    IC.NATIL'S    OF    LOYOLA.  79 

society."  But  Paul  IV,  although  eighty  years  of  age, 
was  not  the  less  inflexible  in  his  will.  It  appeared  to  him 
unaccountable  that  a  Jesuit  should  refuse  a  dignity  which 
so  many  others  were  ambitious  of  obtaining,  and  resolved 
within  himself  to  overcome  an  opposition  to  which  his 
predecessors  had  succumbed.  In  order  to  accomplish 
this,  and  to  carry  his  point,  he  thought  that  all  that  was 
necessary,  was  to  familiarize  Laynez  with  the  splendor 
and  pomp  of  the  Pontifical  Court ;  he,  accordingly,  took 
the  necessary  means  to  attract  him  thither,  by  ordering 
him  to  occupy  an  apartment  at  the  Vatican,  where  he 
desired  to  engage  him  on  a  special  and  important  busi- 
ness concerning  the  benefices  of  bishoprics  and  abbeys. 
Many  grave  and  serious  abuses  had  crept  into  the  ad- 
ministration of  this  department,  but  Laynez  was  not  long 
in  discovering  them,  and,  after  pointing  out  their  dangerous 
tendency,  indicated  the  best  means  of  bringing  about  re- 
forms and  ameliorations ;  however,  he  soon  perceived  that, 
besides  this  occupation,  the  Pope  and  Cardinals  entertained 
other  views  regarding  himself ;  and  surrounding  circum- 
stances led  him  to  believe  that  they  had  not  abandoned 
their  original  project  of  making  him  a  member  of  the 
Sacred  College;  he,  therefore,  fully  comprehended  the  posi- 
tion in  which  the  Pope  had  placed  him.  But  Paul  IV, 
as  has  been  said,  possessed  an  inflexible  will,  and  it  might 
have  been  imprudent  to  oppose  him.  Of  this  Laynez 
was  not  ignorant,  yet  he  felt,  above  all,  that  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He  pondered  well  in 
secret  meditation  all  the  circumstances  by  which  he  was 
surrounded,  and  calculated  the  consequences.  He  felt  that 
he  had  but  one  course  to  pursue,  and  he  adopted  it :  he 
fled  from  the  Vatican,  and  took  refuge  with  his  Father- 
General.  The  will  of  Paul  IV,  who  could  not  miscon- 
strue this  sudden  flight,  for  once  yielded  before  the  hu- 
mility of  this  simple  religious. 
9 


60  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

IX. 

On  Wednesday,  in  Easter  Week,  1555,  the  town  of 
Saragossa,  the  capital  of  Aragon,  presented  a  scene 
which  contrasted  strangely  with  the  feasts  and  rejoicings 
of  the  preceding  days.  A  procession,  composed  of  a 
numerous  body  of  the  clergy  and  monks,  preceded  by  a 
cross  draped  in  black,  followed  by  an  exasperated  crowd, 
wended  its  way  through  the  different  streets  of  the 
city,  singing  the  CVIIIth  Psalm,  which  was  repeated  by 
the  people,  verse  by  verse,  in  loud  and  angry  voices. 
Ever  and  anon  arose  a  roaring  noise  as  of  distant  ar- 
tillery, amidst  which  could  scarcely  be  distinguished  the 
cry  of  "Mercy!  mercy!"  Others  shouted  "Malediction! 
malediction!"  while  the  clergy  and  religious  continued 
their  lugubrious  and  reprobating  chant.  What  had  be- 
fallen that  town,  where  but  yesterday  peace  and  joy 
beamed  from  every  countenance,  and  filled  every  Christian 
soul,  and  where  every  church  reechoed  with  the  sounds  of 
their  triumphant  and  glorious  Alleluias  ! 

The  fact  was,  that  the  Vicar-General  had  just  an- 
nounced that  the  town  had  been  infected  and  profaned 
with  heresy,  by  the  simple  fact  of  the  presence  among 
them  of  the  Jesuits.  The  citizens  of  Saragossa  were  not 
ignorant  of  the  good  that  the  members  of  the  society  had 
effected  throughout  Spain.  They  had  been  eye-witnesses 
of  the  marvels  which  the  preaching  of  Francesco  Strada 
had  wrought  in  their  own  town,  hence  they  had  solicited 
that  a  house  of  the  Order  should  be  conceded  them, 
they  offering  to  defray  all  the  cost  of  its  establishment; 
but,  while  the  Archbishop  of  Aragon  shared  in  this  wish, 
there  existed  a  law  prohibiting  the  erection  of  a  chapel 
or  monastery  within  a  certain  distance  of  an  established 
parish  church  or  religious  community.  This  measure  had 
been  deemed  necessary  for  the  prevention  of  disputes  as 


GENERALSHIP   OP   ST.   IGNATIUS   OP    LOYOLA.  81 

to  precedence.  The  churches  and  monasteries  in  Sara- 
gossa  were  so  niuncrous,  that  the  property  proposed  to 
be  given  to  the  Jesuits  was  found  to  be  situated  within 
the  prescribed  limits,  and  it  was  this  fact  that  delayed 
the  establishment  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  town,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  the  people  became  more  anxious  to  possess 
them. 

At  length,  in  the  year  1555,  a  suitable  dwelling,  situ- 
ated beyond  the  prescribed  limits,  was  purchased,  and,  to 
the  inexpressible  joy  of  the  people  of  Saragossa,  the 
Jesuits  were  called  thither  by  the  Archbishop,  and  Easter 
Wednesday  was  fixed  upon  for  the  inauguration  of  their 
chapel.  All  applauded  the  course  taken  by  the  good 
prelate,  in  selecting  one  of  those  days  on  which  the 
Church  celebrates  the  greatest  triumph  of  Christianity. 
On  the  preceding  evening,  Don  Lopez  Marco,  Grand 
Vicar,  forbade  Father  Barma,  Superior  of  the  new  house, 
to  inaugurate  the  chapel  until  further  orders. 

"  The  Augustinians,"  he  added,  "have  made  complaint 
that  you  are  too  near  them." 

"I  can  not  submit  to  such  an  injunction,"  replied  the 
Superior,  "as  it  is  not  supported  by  any  reasonable  mo- 
tive. We  are  in  order,  and  fully  authorized  by  the  Lord 
Bishop,  who  himself  made  the  arrangement,  and  ordered 
us  to  take  possession  ;  moreover,  here  are  our  privileges." 

"  I  formally  object  to  the  inauguration,"  replied  Don 
Lopez;  "you  can  not  establish  yourselves  here;  endeavor 
to  remove  further." 

"  Let  us,  first  of  all,  consult  the  most  learned  canon- 
ists," rejoined  the  Father. 

The  canonists,  who  were  consulted  on  the  same  day, 
decided  that  the  Augustinians  had  no  ground  of  com- 
plaint, and  that  the  Jesuits  might  continue. 

"  I  hold  to  my  opposition,"  exclaimed  Don  Lopez. 

"  But  we  can   not  conform  to  it,"  replied  the  Father. 


82  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

The  Guardian  of  the  Franciscans  defended  the  Augus- 
tinians,  and  supported  their  claims.  On  the  following 
day  he  presented  himself  to  Father  Barma,  and  made  the 
most  of  the  prohibition  of  the  Grand  Vicar;  but,  per- 
ceiving that  he  could  make  no  impression  upon  the 
Jesuit,  he  said  : 

"Well,  then,  you  will  all  be  excommunicated!" 

"  We  appeal  to  the  Holy  See,"  said  the  Jesuit,  with 
becoming  dignity;  and,  regardless  of  the  threat  of  ex 
communication,  he  proceeded  with  the  ceremony.  An 
immense  concourse  of  people  thronged  the  chapel  and 
congregated  around  the  house,  ignoring  the  unforeseen 
difficulties  which  had  arisen  since  the  preceding  evening. 
While  Father  Barma  celebrated  mass  in  the  chapel,  Don 
Lopez  Marco  placarded  about  the  town  a  printed  notice, 
prohibiting  the  people,  under  pain  of  excommunication, 
from  entering  the  chapel  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Fathers 
were  declared  accursed,  and  anathema  was  hurled  against 
them.  In  that  age  of  faith,  the  word  of  a  dignitary  of 
the  Church  was  all-powerful  with  the  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  Christians  did  not  ordinarily  hesitate  to  prefer 
death  to  excommunication.  It  was  like  a  clap  of  thun- 
der to  the  people  when  they  learned,  on  leaving  the 
chapel,  of  the  penalty  which  awaited  those  who  should 
have  the  temerity  to  enter  it  again,  and  thus,  when  the 
procession  above  referred  to  made  its  appearance,  they 
felt  bound  to  support  the  sentence  which  had  been  pro- 
nounced against  the  Jesuit  Fathers.  Thus  it  was  that 
they  joined  their  voices  with  those  of  the  priests  and  re- 
ligious, who,  in  their  anger,  called  down  maledictions  upon 
those  who  had  brought  them  the  blessings  of  heaven,  but 
in  whom  they  could  now  only  perceive  men  of  guilt, 
meriting  the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition. 

The  more  enlightened  among  the  people,  while  they  la- 
mented the  existing  state  of  affairs,  felt  that,  eventually, 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   IGNATIUS   OF    LOYOLA.  83 

it  would  turn  to  the  still  greater  triumph  of  the  Jesuits. 
The  dignity  of  Don  Lopez  being  thus  wounded,  he  did 
not  stop  here.  Not  only  had  Father  Barma  disregarded 
his  authority,  but  the  threat  of  the  Guardian  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans had  had  no  effect,  and  it  was  necessary,  at  any 
cost,  to  devise  means  whereby  to  compel  him  to  depart. 
Strange  measures  were  resorted  to.  Pjffi";ies  of  the  Jes- 
uits  being  precipitated  into  hell  by  legions  of  devils 
were  exhibited  in  the  streets,  and  it  was  even  inculcated 
among  the  people  that  the  town  was  profaned  by  the 
presence  of  the  Jesuits,  who,  it  was  declared,  had  brought 
heresy  into  it,  and  that  the  whole  of  Saragossa  was  un- 
der excommunication,  and  would  so  remain  until  they 
left  it.  These  extravagant  absurdities  were  paraded  and 
placarded  all  over  the  town,  and  were  the  general  theme 
of  conversation  on  all  sides.  At  length  the  populace, 
whose  feelings  had  been  thus  worked  upon,  became  more 
violent,  and,  proceeding  to  the  house  of  the  Jesuits,  they 
threw  stones,  breaking  the  panes  of  glass,  and  threaten- 
ing the  inmates  with  their  vengeance,  while  a  procession, 
similar  to  the  one  already  described,  paraded  round  the  ill- 
fated  house,  uttering  cries  of  disapprobation,  reproach,  and 
condemnation. 

These  absurd  but  aggravating  demonstrations  having, 
within  a  fortnight,  been  several  times  reenacted,  the  good 
Father  felt  it  to  be  his  duty,  by  quitting  the  place,  to  put 
a  stop  to  the  disgraceful  proceedings,  which  had  already 
created  too  much  commotion  and  excitement  to  be  ignored 
by  the  court. 

The  Archbishop,  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  the  Pope's 
Nuncio,  and  the  Princess  Jane,  who  was  Regent  in  the 
absence  of  Charles  V,  instituted  an  investigation  into  the 
cause  of  these  troubles,  and  the  Ecclesiastical  Tribunal  de- 
clared that  the  Augustinians  were  in  the  wrong,  as  well 
as  the  Guardian  of  the  Franciscans  and  the  Grand  Vicar. 
9* 


84  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Don  Lopez,  thereupon,  was  compelled  to  remove  the  ban 
of  excommunication,  after  which  the  Jesuits  were  invited 
to  return,  and  take  possession  of  their  house  ;  their  here- 
sies were  forgotten,  and  the  people  only  remembered  their 
zeal,  their  charity,  and  the  sanctity  of  their  lives,  and 
the  solicitations  for  their  return  were  accompanied  with 
tears  of  regret  for  the  past,  and  of  hope  for  the  future. 
The  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  magistrates  proceeded,  in  a 
body,  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  to  give  them  a  public  re- 
ception, and  conduct  them  to  their  house,  where  the  Vice- 
roy was  in  attendance  to  receive  them,  and  to  deliver 
up  the  keys.  Among  those  who  rendered  this  public 
homage  to  the  Jesuits  was  Don  Lopez  Marco  himself. 

From  this  moment  commenced  the  mission  of  the  o-ood 
Fathers,  which,  by  the  grace  of  Almighty  God,  was 
abundantly  productive  of  the  best  results.  Their  virtues 
soon  drew  around  them  new  disciples,  and  neighboring 
towns  seeking  missionaries  from  the  society,  it  soon  be- 
came necessary  to  respond  to  their  solicitations,  by  erect- 
ing new  colleges  and  establishing  new  novitiates;  in  fact, 
the  desire  of  the  people,  throughout  Spain,  to  secure  the 
services  of  the  Jesuits,  spread  like  a  holy  contagion. 

X. 

Joseph  Anchieta,  who  had  barely  attained  his  twen- 
tieth year,  and  who  had  just  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
in  Brazil,  was  sent,  by  Father  Nobrega,  to  propose  terms 
of  peace  to  a  savage  race,  known  as  the  Tamuyas ;  but 
these  cannibals,  far  from  listening  to  such  a  proposition, 
replied  to  the  young  novice  by  fixing  the  day  on  which 
they  would  devour  him,  which  they  proposed  doing  while 
celebrating  one  of  their  horrible  and  revolting  orgies. 
On  hearing  this  from  a  people  whose  eternal  welfare  he 
sought  to  promote,  he  betrayed  not  the  slightest  emotion, 
and   a    simple    and    benign   smile    illumined    his    counte- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  ST.   IGNATIUS  OF  LOYOLA.  85 

nance,  as  he  replied,  with  great  gentleness,  but  in  a  firm 
voice  :  "  I  have  nothing  to  fear  but  from  God  alone,  and  the 
hour  of  death  has  not  yet  arrived  for  me." 

He  remained  among  the  Tamuyas,  from  whom  he  could 
easily  have  escaped,  and  they  were  struck  with  amazement 
at  the  coolness  and  courage  displayed  by  the  young  Jesuit, 
in  the  face  of  the  vengeance  with  which  they  threatened 
liiiu.  The  youtliful  hero  spoke  to  them  upon  the  truths 
of  the  Gospel,  which  he  had  come  to  preach  to  them,  and 
of  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  emblem  of  the  world's 
redemption,  pointing  out  how  they,  too,  might  be  saved  by 
it.  At  length,  having  gained  their  confidence,  he  was 
listened  to  with  eager  attention,  and  finally  succeeded 
not  only  in  making  them  esteem  and  love  him,  but,  far 
more  important  still,  in  converting  them  to  the  Christian 
faith.  Another  tribe,  the  Carriges,  hearing  of  the  won- 
derful results  of  the  labors  of  the  missionaries,  were  at  a 
loss  to  comprehend  the  existence  of  so  much  goodness  and 
virtue  ;  but,  savages  as  they  were,  they  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  religion  inculcated  by  the  Fathers  must 
be  the  true  one,  as  nothing  could  resist  it,  and  they,  in 
their  turn,  expressed  a  desire  to  become  Christians.  As 
their  request  to  have  one  of  the  Fathers  among  them 
could  not,  at  the  time,  be  complied  with,  they  determined 
to  2:0  to  the  missionaries.  Two  hundred  of  them  accord- 
ingly  set  out  for  the  nearest  mission,  seeking  to  be  bap- 
tized. Some  Spaniards  who,  yielding  to  their  passions, 
lived  among  these  savages,  tendered  their  services  to  es- 
cort them  to  a  Christian  settlement ;  but,  on  their  way, 
they  were  attacked  by  a  horde  of  savages,  who  fell  upon 
and  massacred  the  greater  number,  reserving  the  remain- 
der for  their  abominable  orgies.  The  Jesuits,  being  in- 
formed of  this  circumstance,  dispatched  two  of  their  mem- 
bers, Fathers  de  Souza  and  Correa,  who,  arriving  in  the 
midst  of  the  savages,  secured  the  liberation  of  the  pris- 


86  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

oners,  conducting  them  in  all  safety  to  their  house-. 
Among  these  prisoners  was  a  Spaniard,  whom  the  con- 
version of  the  Carriges  had  deprived  of  the  means  of  grat- 
ifying his  depraved  inclinations  and  passions ;  and,  to 
revenge  himself  upon  the  missionaries  who  had  thus  saved 
his  life,  and  compel  them  to  retire  from  among  a  people 
who  yielded  with  so  much  docility  to  their  b  dy.  teaching, 
this  apostate  had  recourse  to  the  foulest  calumnies. 

"  The  Fathers  deceive  you,  and  take  advantage  of  your 
credulity,"  said  he  to  them  ;  "  their  object  is  cot  the  sal- 
vation of  your  souls,  as  they  would  lead  y:a  to  believe, 
but  to  conquer  and  subjugate  you,  and  reduce  you  to  the 
condition  of  slaves."  Thus  worked  upon,  the  Carriges 
believed  that  they  had  been  duped,  and,  in  t' .eir  maddened 
fury,  rushed  upon  the  missionaries  and  xartyred  them. 

It  was  not  long  before  Europe  heard  of  the  successes 
and  the  reward  of  the  missior.aries  whom  she  had  sent 
to  the  Brazils ;  and  the  Jesuits,  whose  zeal  was  inflamed 
at  the  recital  of  these  glorious  victories,  eagerly  sought 
the  happiness  of  replacing,  in  this  hazardous  but  glo- 
rious mission,  those  of  their  brothers  who  had  gone  to 
heaven. 

Public  rumor  soon  brought  to  the  ears  of  Calvin  the 
marvellous  and  extraordinary  successes  of  this  blessed 
ministry  in  the  Brazils,  and  he  inwardly  resolved  to  ex- 
ercise every  means  in  his  power  to  disseminate  his  own 
doctrines  in  all  those  places  into  which  the  Jesuits  had 
penetrated.  Nicolas  Durand  de  Yillegagnon,  an  apostate 
Knight  of  Malta,  for  this  purpose  offered  to  set  out  for 
the  Brazils  with  a  little  colony  of  heretics.  Calvin  read- 
ily accepted  the  proposition,  and  hastened  to  expedite 
their  departure,  and,  toward  the  end  of  November,  1555, 
they  made  the  coast  of  the  Portuguese  possessions  in  the 
new  world.  Two  Protestants  had  anticipated  Calvin'a 
scheme,  and  were  already  settled  in  the  Brazils,  when  the 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  87 

expedition  arrived  ;  but  neither  of  them  had  as  yet  been 
able  to  make  a  eingle  convert.  Differing  from  each  other 
upon  certain  points  of  doctrine,  each  tried  to  convince  the 
otlier  of  his  error,  and  these  discussions  occupying  their 
time  day  after  day,  they  made  no  progress  in  the  conver- 
sion of  others.  .Villegagnon's  first  effort,  on  arriving,  was 
to  reconcile  the  two  disputants ;  but  he  soon  discovered 
that  both  equally  differed  with  him  in  their  views,  and 
that  there  was  no  hope  of  their  ever  agreeing.  The  dif- 
ference of  opinion  thus  existing  among  the  three  men  who 
appeared  in  the  quality  of  leiders  of  the  new  religion,  was 
far  from  tending  to  make  it  popular.  While  thus  en- 
gaged in  discussing  their  different  points  of  belief  and 
'Interpretations  of  Holy  Scripture,  the  Jesuits,  who  were 
ever  united,  labored  with  an  earnestness,  a  zeal,  and  a 
unanimity,  that  almost  trebled  their  forces.  They  built 
new  residences,  erected  churches,  increased  the  number 
of  their  hospitals,  schools,  and  religious  houses.  The 
newly  Christianized  colonies  increased  each  day,  while 
the  miracles  of  Father  Anchieta,  frequently  corroborating 
the  doctrines  they  inculcated,  left  little  for  the  Calvinists 
to  hope  for  from  their  own  preaching.  The  very  knight 
who  had  been  sent  to  frustrate  their  works  was  struck 
with  admiration  of  their  wonderful  progress  and  success, 
juid  the  question  suggested  itself  to  him,  how  it  was  pos- 
sible that  he  should  have  denied  and  persecuted  a  religion 
which  could  produce  such  men;  at  length,  being  unable 
Ioniser  to  resist  his  remorse  of  conscience,  he  cast  himself 
at  the  feet  of  one  of  the  Jesuits,  and  returned  to  the 
bosom  of  the  Church. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  spread  not  only  throughout  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  America,  but  penetrated  into  the  wilds  of 
Africa,  where,  as  in  every  other  place,  it  numbered  heroes 
and  martyrs  in  its  ranks. 

As  early  as  the  year  1546,  the  Emperor  Claudius,  of 


88  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Abyssinia,  who  was  called  Priest  John,*  had  applied  to 
the  King  of  Portugal  for  Catholic  priests.  The  Chris- 
tianity of  the  ancient  Abyssinians  had  disappeared  in  a 
mixture  of  the  errors  of  Eutyches  and  Dioscorus.  Besides 
these  sectaries,  the  population  comprised  a  great  number 
of  Pagans,  Jews,  and  Mussulmans.  The  Emperor  had  re- 
mained true  to  the  Catholic  religion,  and,  obedient  to  the 
advice  of  his  father,  the  Emperor  David,  refused  to  recog- 
nize the  schismatic  bishop,  who  had  been  sent  to  the 
Christians  by  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria. 

The  King  of  Portugal  had  urged  Ignatius  of  Loyola 
to  make  choice  of  a  patriarch  and  priests  from  the  society, 
to  send  to  the  Emperor  Claudius,  and  the  holy  founder, 
perceiving  nothing  but  perils,  humiliations,  and  poverty  in 
the  dignity  of  Catholic  Patriarch  in  an  Infidel  country, 
willingly  yielded  to  the  expressed  desires  of  John  III 
and  the  command  of  the  Sovereign  Pontifi".  Father  Nun- 
hez,  with  the  title  of  Patriarch,  and  Andrew  Oviedo  and 
Melchior  Carnero,  as  Coadjutor  Bishops,  left  Rome  in  tee 
month  of  March,  1555,  accompanied  by  ten  other  F^iti  c  rs, 
to  assist  them  in  this  perilous  and  difiicult  mission.  On 
their  way  they  stopped  at  Goa,  where  they  instructed 
Gonzales  Rodriguez  to  proceed  to  Ethiopia,  and  report 
upon  the  condition  of  affairs  there. 

Pending  these  negotiations,  and  during  their  journey, 
the  schismatics  had  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Empcmr 
that  the  Jesuits  were  but  the  precursors  of  a  European  in- 
vasion, and  that  Abj'ssinia  would  be  conquered  by  them,  and 
its  sovereign  reduced  to  a  mere  tributary  of  the  northern 
conqueror.  When  Father  Rodriguez  arrived,  he  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Emperor,  who  confronted  him  with  some 
of    the    learned    schismatics,    and,   after   listening   to   his 


*In  the  Ethiopian  language,  "  Priest  John  "  signifies  "Great  and 
Precious." 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   IGNATIUS   OF   LOYOLA.  89 

arguments,  dismissed  him  with  a  letter  to  the  King  of  Portu- 
gal. Claudius  no  longer  desired  the  service  of  tliese  Catholic 
priests,  whom,  before,  he  was  so  anxious  to  have,  and  whom 
he  had  brought  so  great  a  distance  from  their  homes.  Rodri- 
guez, therefore,  set  out  on  his  return  for  Goa,  where  we  shall 
leave  him  for  the  present. 

XL 

To  the  great  dismay  and  chagrin  of  the  Lutherans,  the 
Jesuits  continued  to  make  rapid  progress  in  Germany. 
The  disasters  and  ravages  of  war  were  succeeded  by  a 
plague,  which  carried  great  devastation  throughout  the 
city  of  Vienna.  As  ever,  the  Jesuits  were  at  their  post, 
and  devoted  themselves  with  a  zeal  and  self-abnegation 
hitherto  unparalleled  in  that  country,  and  their  tender 
charity  and  incomparable  devotedness  to  the  cause  of  re- 
ligion tended  as  much  to  the  good  of  the  Church,  as  had 
their  courageous  contests  Avith  the  heretics.  The  preach- 
ing of  true  evangelical  charity  is  irresistible.  The  Lu- 
theran ministers  possessed  it  not,  hence  they  could  not 
compete  with  the  followers  of  Ignatius  in  this  sphere  of 
suffering  and  danger.  They  fled  precipitately,  abandoning 
those  whom  they  had  misled,  leaving  them  to  be  cared  for  by 
their  reputed  enemies. 

By  this  'time  the  full  value  and  importance  of  the 
Jesuits  was  duly  appreciated  throughout  Germany,  where 
their  learning,  their  eloquence,  and  their  gentle  and 
heroic  virtues  had  won  for  them  the  admiration  of  all. 
[t  was  then  sought  to  form  houses  of  the  Order  through- 
out the  country,  and  urgent  applications  poured  in  from 
all  sides.  At  the  request  of  the  bishops,  Father  Canisius 
went  from  one  diocese  to  another,  preaching,  hearing  con- 
fessions, extending  aid  and  consolation  to  all,  thereby 
adding  daily  to  the  brilliancy  of  his  reputation.  On  the 
death  of  the  Bishop  of  Vienna,  the  King  of  the  Romans 


90  HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

begged  Ignatius  to  allow  Canisius  to  fill  that  important 
See ;  but  uj^on  this  point  Ignatius  was  inflexible,  and  gave 
his  positive  refusal.  The  King  did  not  urge  the  matter 
further ;  but  the  condition  of  the  diocese  still  needed 
much  the  wise  and  judicious  counsels  and  direction  of 
such  a  mind  as  that  of  Canisius,  and  Ferdinand  conjured 
Ignatius  to  permit  him  to  remain  in  the  diocese  for  a 
short  time,  as  Administrator.  To  this  the  holv  founder 
consented,  and  directed  Canisius  to  accept  the  position, 
but,  at  the  same  time,  never  to  appropriate  any  of  the 
rich  revenue  attached  to  it.  Canisius  well  knew  the  wants 
and  necessities  of  the  diocese,  and  being  aware  of  the  means 
he  could  employ  to  meet  these,  and  remedy  existing  evils, 
he  applied  himself  vigorously  to  the  task,  and  accomplished 
wonders.  In  the  mean  time  the  Vaivode  of  Transylvania 
sought  the  services  of  the  Jesuits  for  his  states,  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Grau  and  the  Bishop  of  Breslau  made 
similar  solicitations  —  the  former  for  Hungary,  and  the 
liUter  for  Silesia ;  the  Poles,  likewise,  asked  for  missionaries. 
From  the  very  commencement  of  the  year  1556,  Germany 
became  a  province  of  the  society,  with  Father  Canisius  as 
Provincial. 

Corsica,  having  fallen  into  a  state  of  semi-barbarism 
by  the  extreme  ignorance  and  depravity  of  its  iiihubit- 
ants,  was  a  continual  source  of  anxiety  to  the  Genoese 
Republic,  to  whose  yoke  it  reluctantly  submitted.  There 
appeared  to  the  republic  but  one  means  by  which  this 
untractable  people  could  be  brought  into  subjection,  and 
that  was  to  send  among  them  the  Jesuits.  Accordingly. 
Ignatius  was  applied  to  by  the  Genoese  government,  upon 
which  Fathers  Sylvester  Landini  and  Emmanuel  de  Monte- 
Mayor  were  selected  by  him,  and  at  once  proceeded  to 
the  field  of  their  labors,  with  the  title  of  Visitors  Apos- 
tolic. They  scoured  the  forests,  visited  the  villages, 
went    into   the  mountains,  and  penetrated   into  the  most 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   IGNATIUS    OF    LOYOLA.  91 

out-of-the-way  places,  wherever  they  were  likely  to  find 
a  sinner  to  be  converted,  a  soul  to  be  saved,  or  the  igno- 
rant tO  instruct.  By  this  means,  combined  with  persever 
ance,  patience  and  charity,  they  succeeded  in  entirely 
reformin<>;  those  half-savaire  natures.  In  fine,  Corsica  re- 
turned  to  God*  reentered  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  and 
was  once  more  civilized,  and  all  this  was  the  work  of  the 
followers  of  Ignatius,  whose  gentleness  and  humility  nothing 
could  resist. 

While  these  two  apostles,  by  the  most  mild  and  gentle 
means,   succeeded    in   subduing   a   people   the    most    rebel- 
lious,   Father    Francis    Borgia,    by    a    simple    word,   over- 
came the   self-will  and  stubbornness  of  a  prince  who  pos- 
sessed  the   reputation    of  never  yielding.      Charles  V   had 
given   to   his   son,  Philip  II,  the   Kingdom   of  Naples   and 
the    Duchy    of    Milan ;     and    the    new   monarch   was    sol- 
emnly acknowledged   on   the   25th   of  July,  1554,  when  he 
was  about   contracting  an  alliance  with  Mary  of  England. 
On    the  occasion   of  his   elevation   to   the  throne,   and   his 
marriage  with  the   English   princess,  he   desired  to  see  the 
Roman   purple    conferred    upon    his    relative,    the    Duke   of 
Gandia,  who  had  entered  the  Order  of  Jesus,  as  the  hum- 
ble  Father    Francis.      The  Pope   was   willing,   but   not   so 
Francis     Borgia,    who     dared    refuse    to    Philip     II    what 
he   had   deni-ed   to   Charles  V.     Inflexible   in   his  will,  the 
King   of  Naples    commanded    him   to   obey,  to  which   the 
Jesuit  simply  replied:    "I  am   but  a  poor  sinner,  but  I 
can   not   obey  your    Majesty  in  this."      Thus,  by  the  hu- 
mility of  the  holy  Jesuit,  Philip,  like  Charles  V,  was  de- 
feated.    The  result  was,  that  the  holy  founder  once  more 
saw  his  society   preserved  from    that   which  he  regarded 
and  called  a  scourge.     At  this  time  the  general  health  of 
Ignatius   of   Loyola    was   visibly   declining.     There  were 
three  things   he  had  desired   to    see  accomplished  before 
he  died,  namely  :   the  sanction  of  the  society  by  the  Pope, 

the    book   of   Spiritual  Exercises  approved  by   the    same 
lU 


92  '  HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

authority,  and  the  constitutions  known  and  enforced  wherever 
a  member  of  the  society  was  found.  These  three  he  had 
seen  accomplished.  Almighty  God  had  even  granted  more 
than  this  holy  man  had  ever  hoped  to  accomplish,  for 
he  saw  his  society  spread  all  over  the  known  world.  Al- 
though in  existence  barely  sixteen  years,  it  already  num- 
bered more  than  a  thousand  members,  possessed  a  hundred 
houses  or  colleges,  and  comprised  twelve  provinces,  includ- 
ing the  Brazils. 

Ignatius  had  the  happiness  of  living  to  see  the  Roman 
College  in  such  a  prosperous  condition  that,  at  the  end 
of  1555,  the  first  hundred  pupils,  most  of  whom  were 
employed  in  the  society,  had  spread  themselves  over  the 
world,  to  labor  for  the  glory  of  God,  while  they  were 
replaced  at  college  by  two  hundred  others.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  Paul  IV  accorded  to  this  institution  all  the 
privileges  enjoyed  by  universities.  It  was  the  desire  of 
the  holy  founder  that  the  colleges  of  his  Order  should 
follow  the  same  system  as  that  employed  in  the  University 
of  Paris,  and  it  was  on  this  account  that  he  always  selected 
professors  educated  there. 

The  German  College  was  equally  prosperous,  and  was 
the  hope  of  Germany.  The  cardinals  and  bishops,  ad- 
miring the  organization  of  this  seminary,  and  the  perfect 
administration  of  its  affairs,  decided,  in  the  Council  of 
Trent,  that  it  should  serve  as  a  model  in  the  formation  of 
the  diocesan  seminaries. 

Ignatius  now  felt  his  end  approaching,  but,  preserving 
all  the  vigor  of  his  mind,  he  still  employed  his  time  in 
the  business  appertaining  to  the  government  of  the  Order, 
not  one  of  his  religious  believing  that  his  end  was  so  near. 
On  the  30th  July,  1556,  while  still  on  his  bed  of  sufiering,  he 
was  earnestly  laboring  for  the  good  of  his  society,  assisted  by 
Father  Polanco,  his  secretary.  At  five  o'clock  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  while  pronouncing  the  holy  name  of  Jesus, 
he  quietly  expired,  at  the  age  of  sixty-five. 


GENERALSHIP   OP    FATHER   JAMES   LAYNEZ.  93 


6cwralsMp  of  |atkr  |amcs  f  iignc^, 

SECOND    GENERAL. 
1556  — 1565. 

I. 

Charles  V  had  just  abdicated  and  retired  to  the  Mon- 
astery of  Yuste,  in  Estremadura,  leaving  the  imperial 
throne  to  his  brother  Ferdinand,  and  the  crown  of  Spain 
to  his  son  Philip,  who  already  occupied  the  throne  of 
Naples  and  the  dukedom  of  Milan.  At  the  time  the 
holy  founder  of  the  society  w^ent  to  receive  the  reward 
of  his  holy  and  laborious  life,  Philip  was  at  open  war 
with  Pope  Paul  IV.  It  was  naturally  to  be  feared  that 
this  existing  state  of  hostility  would  lead  to  a  difficulty 
in  the  speedy  election  of  a  successor  of  the  deceased 
General. 

The  month  of  April,  1557,  was  fixed  upon  for  the 
election,  for  which  purpose  the  members  were  convened; 
but  it  soon  became  known  that  the  King  of  Spain  had 
not  only  prohibited  the  Spanish  Jesuits  from  going 
to  Rome  to  take  part  in  the  election,  but  that  he  had 
actually  forbidden  them  to  pass  beyond  the  frontier  of 
his  kingdom.  This  was  equivalent  to  an  indefinite  post- 
ponement of  the  General  Assembly.  The  question  arose 
with  the  Fathers  in  Rome,  whether,  in  order  to  obviate 
the  delay  in  the  election  of  a  new  General,  it  would  not 
be  advisable  to  convene  in  Spain;  but  the  Pope  and  the 
Sacred    College    loudly   protested    against    such   a  step,   it 


94:  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

having  already  been  suggested  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiif, 
by  the  opponents  of  the  society,  that  they  sought  to  es- 
tablish their  mother  house  in  Spain,  and  thus  be  with- 
drawn from  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See.  The  Pope, 
therefore,  ordered  that  the  Jesuits  should  not  leave  Rome 
without  his  permission,  and,  moreover,  required  that  their 
rules  should  be  submitted  to  him  :  hitherto,  those  rules 
which  were  observed  throughout  the  entire  Order  were 
not  legally  binding.  It  had  been  the  desire  of  Ignatius 
that  they  should  be  in  force  in  the  society  for  a  time,  so 
that,  afterward,  such  modifications  as  might  be  deemed 
necessary  might  be  made  in  them.  For  this  purpose,  he 
had  provided  that  the  rules  and  constitutions  should  be 
submitted  to  the  second  General  Assembly  for  final  approval 
and  adoption,  and  it  was  this  assembly  which  was  to  elect 
a  new  General.  They  could  not  meet  in  Rome  until  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  peace  between  the  Holy  See 
and  the  King  of  Spain.  The  Congregation,  or  General 
Council,  commenced  its  sittings  on  the  19th  June,  1558, 
and,  on  the  22d  July  following,  Father  Laynez,  who,  since 
the  death  of  Ignatius,  had  acted  as  Vicar-General  of  the 
Order,  was  duly  elected  General. 

In  his  retirement,  Charles  V  regretted  the  step  he 
had  taken  in  allowino-  the  Duke  of  Gandia  to  embrace  a 
religious  life.  He  felt  that  it  would  be  a  consolation  to 
have  him  near  himself,  and  frequently  expressed  a  desire 
to  send  for  him,  thinkinii;  that,  if  he  could  but  see  him 
privately,  he  might  prevail  upon  him  to  leave  the  society, 
and  to  retire  to  the  Monastery  of  Yuste.  Kventually  he 
wrote,  begging  him  to  come  and  see  him.  Francis  Rorgia 
acceded  to  this  request,  and  spent  three  days  with  the 
monarch,  who  overwhelmed  him  with  marks  of  afiection  ; 
but  Francis  Rorgia  evinced  so  strung  an  attachment  for 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  that  the  Emperor  no  longer  urged 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.       95 

him   to   make   the    sacrifices   he   had    suggested*     Francis 
was  both  beloved  and   respected  at   the   court   of  Portugal. 
King  John  III  had  just   breathed   his   last,  and   Charles  V 
begged  the  former   duke  of  Gandia   to  visit   Queen   Catha- 
rine, and  offer  her  spiritual  consolation  in  her  severe  afilic- 
tion.     Francis  Borgia  delayed  not  a  moment  in   complying 
with  this  request,  and  hastened  to  the  Queen,  who  was  the 
sister  of  Charles  V.      This  mission  fulfilled,  he  next  visited 
the  various  houses  of  the  society,  which  were  even  more 
prosperous  in  Purtuj^al  than  elsewhere.     But  he  was  sud- 
denly called  back  to  Spain.     Charles  V  was  at  the  point 
of  death,  and  having  appointed  Francis  Borgia  his  exec- 
utor, he  desired   to  see  him,  bid    him  a  last  farewell,  and 
receive  at  his  hands,  in  his  last  moments,  consolation  and 
his  final  blessing.     The  holy  Jesuit  proceeded,  in  all  haste, 
to  perform  this  last  duty  to  the  Emperor,  and  to  prepare 
him  finally  for  his  entrance  into  eternity.      After  his  de- 
cease, he  delivered  his  funeral  oration  in  the  presence  of 
the  whole  court. 

The  enemies  of  the  society  beheld  no  longer  in  Francis 
Borgia  the  fornter  Duke  of  Gandia ;  he  was  only  the  hum- 
ble Jesuit,  and  they  looked  upon  all  the  marks  of  honor 
and  respect  which  he  had  received  from  the  sovereign, 
whose  intimate  friend  he  had  remained  to  the  last,  but  as 
honors  paid  to  the  entire  Order.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
envy  o^  che  enemies  of  the  society  had  been  excited  by 
its  successes  in  other  respects.  Thus,  in  the  single  year 
of  1558,  thirty-four  doctors  of  the  University  of  Alcala, 
among  whom  were  the  most  celebrated,  had  renounced 
the  honors  and  riches  of  the  world,  in  order  to  embrace  a 
life  of  humility  and  poverty  in  the  Society  of  Jesus. 


*  See  History  ot  St.  Francis  Borgia,  which  contains  an  interesting 
ccrount  of  tbio  interview  oecweeu  the  holy  Jesuit  and  the  Emperor 
in  the  Monacie^y  ol   i  uste. 
10* 


96  HISTORY   OF  THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

A  short  time  after  this,  the  Queen  of  Portugal  and  her 
brother-in-law,  Cardinal  Don  Henrique,  urged  Father  Lay- 
nez  to  allow  Father  Louis  Gonzales  da  Camara  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  court  for  the  purpose  of  superintending  the 
education  of  the  young  King,  Don  Sebastian.  KnoAving 
the  character  and  disposition  of  the  Prince,  and  foresee- 
ing the  difficulties  of  the  position,  Father  da  Camara 
declined  to  go  to  the  court,  but  the  Father-Creneral,  Fran- 
cis Borgia,  and  all  the  Provincials,  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  society  could  not,  without  ingratitude,  refuse 
such  a  service  to  the  son  of  John  III,  and  the  nephew 
of  Charles  Y.     Father  da  Camara  thereupon  obeyed. 

Success  is  a  fault  which  the  envious  forgive  with  re- 
luctance. It  was  now  all-important  to  make  the  society 
atone  for  the  celebrity  it  had  attained  by  the  learning  and 
sublime  virtues  of  its  members.  As  not  a  single  accusa- 
tion could,  in  truth,  be  brought  against  it,  its  enemies 
had  recourse  to  calumny,  and,  in  order  the  more  eflfectu- 
ally  to  attain  their  wicked  ends,  they  allied  themselves  to 
the  heretics. 

Some  sectarians  had  succeeded  in  secretly  entering 
Spain,  and  there  publishing  their  books  and  pernicious 
doctrines,  had  already  misled  many  independent  minds; 
but  the  Jesuits,  having  been  advised  of  the  fact,  imme- 
diately made  their  appearance,  and  soon  succeeded  in 
repelling  the  enemy.  A  report  was  spread  in  ''eville 
and  Valladolid  that  the  heretical  books  had  been  intro- 
duced by  the  Jesuits,  and  that  they  merely  aflfected  great 
zeal  in  favor  of  the  Pioman  faith,  in  order  to  remove 
from  themselves  all  suspicion  of  the  heresy  of  which  they 
were  the  propagators.  It  was  not  the  first  time  that 
such  reports  had  been  spread,  and,  absurd  as  they  were, 
they  were  received  with  the  same  credulity  as  before,  and 
the   calumniators    did  not   hesitate  to  point   ^.ut    Franci* 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  97 

Borgia  as  the  head  of  these  disseminators  of  heresy,  as- 
serting that  it  was  only  out  of  respect  for  the  crowned 
heads  with  whonj  he  was  rehited,  that  he  was  not  con- 
demned to  the  stake. 

Previous  to  joining  the  society,  Francis  Borgia  had 
written  two  religious  books,  which,  until  this  time,  during 
twelve  years,  had  been  read  with  edifying  effect :  even  the 
Inquisition  itself  had  nought  to  say  against  them;  but,  all 
at  once,  they  discover  that  they  are  very  objectionable, 
and,  for  the  first  time,  find  out  that  they  contain  mon- 
^crous  errors!  What  could  be  the  reason?  Why  had  not 
:.hcse  books  been  condemned  before?  "It  is,"  said  they, 
'•  because  the  Jesuits  have  taken  possession  of  the  Tri- 
bunal of  the  Inquisition;  they  hold  their  court  and  con- 
duct their  proceedings  in  secret,  and  this  is  the  reason 
the  Archbishop  of  Seville,  who  is,  at  the  same  time, 
Judge  of  the  Inquisition,  has  just  decreed  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Society  of  Jesus  is  that  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  that  all  that  has  been  said  against  this  in- 
stitution is  pure  calumny." 

This  supposition  was  a  most  happy  one  for  the  enemies 
of  the  society,  who  every-where  spread  the  report  that  the 
Jesuits  were  members  of  the  Inquisition.  The  Jesuits 
treated  this  report  with  silent  contempt.  The  works  of 
Francis  Borgia  were  submitted  to  the  Inquisition,  and 
condemned.  The  pious  author  felt  some  surprise  that 
the  Tribunal  had  delayed  his  condemnation  so  long; 
the  books  were  produced  and  the  errors  they  contained 
pointed  out  to  him,  and  he  at  once  discovered  that  the 
books  had  been  most  wickedly  interpolated,  altered,  and 
falsified,  before  their  condemnation  by  the  Inquisition. 
The  unscrupulous  enemies  of  the  society  were  in  nowise 
disconcerted.  It  was  then  well  known  that  the  Jesuits 
were  neither  Inquisitors  nor  heretics;  it  now  becomes  the 


98  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

aim  of  tlieir  enemies  to  make  thejn  out  accomplished  ccn- 
spirators. 

During  his  sojourn  in  the  Netherlancis,  Pliilip  IT  had 
confided  the  regency  to  the  Infanta,  whose  custom  it  wa^j 
to  consult  Francis  Borgia,  and  to  be  guided  by  his  coun- 
sels. This  appeared  to  afford  good  material  to  work  upon, 
and,  accordingly,  Father  Francis  was  forthwith  denounced 
to  Philip  II,  as  having  abused  the  confidence  reposed  in 
him  by  the  Infanta,  to  the  profit  of  the  enemies  of  Spain, 
with  whom  he  had  secret  communication  through  the  me- 
dium of  the  society  to  which  he  belonged.  This  ne:7 
calumny  was  treated  by  Father  Francis  with  the  contempt 
it  deserved,  and,  in  compliance  with  an  order  from  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  and  Father-General,  he  prepared  for  a 
journey  to  Rome;  but,  just  as  he  was  about  to  set  out,  he 
was  detained  by  the  Prince  of  Eboly  and  the  Duke  of 
Feria,  who  were  his  intimate  friends. 

"What  are  you  about  to  do.  Reverend  Father?"  said 
the  Prince.  "  The  King  looks  to  you  for  a  justification  of 
your  acts,  and  you  leave  Spain  without  assuring  him  of 
your  fidelity." 

"  The  King  knows  well  that  I  am  not  guilty,"  replied 
the  Father.  "  Why  should  I  seek  to  defend  myself  against 
an  imaginary  crime?" 

"  The  King,  indeed,  is  fully  aware  that  the  accusations 
against  you  are  nothing  but  foul  calumnies,  but,  for  the 
sake  of  appearances,  he  desires  that  you  should  exculpate 
yourself." 

"  The  interest  of  the  society  is  at  stake,"  added  the 
Duke  of  Feria;  "for  it  can  not  but  suff'er  from  the  dis- 
pleasure which  the  King  would  feel  himself  obliged  to 
assume." 

"There  is  nothing  that  I  will  not  do,"  replied  the  holy 
Jesuit,  "for  the  society;  and,  to  secure  its  peaceful  prog- 
ress, I  will  forthwith  write  to  the  King." 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  99 

Accordingly,  he  did  so ;  but,  being  anxious  to  obey  the 
orders  cf  the  Pope  and  tlie  Father-General,  he  quitted 
without  the  formal  consent  of  the  King,  contenting  him- 
self with  merely  announcing  his  immediate  departure. 
Philip,  thereupon,  displayed  much  dissatisfaction,  and  the 
sudden  departure  was  represented  to  him  as  a  flight. 
Then  matters  grew  worse  at  the  court,  and  the  enemies 
of  the  society,  taking  advantage  of  the  circumstances, 
used  every  means  in  their  power  to  make  the  King  be- 
lieve that  the  Jesuits  sacrificed  the  best  interests  of  Spain 
to  those  of  France.  The  monarch  gave  ear  to  these  cal- 
umnies, which  he  fully  credited,  and  openly  reproached 
the  society.  On  the  other  hand,  the  society  was  censured 
by  France  for  their  too  close  attachment  for  Spain  to  the 
detriment  of  France. 

On  the  19th  of  Auixust,  1559,  Paul  IV  breathed  his 
last.  So  soon  as  the  usual  conclave  was  convened,  the 
intrigues  of  the  various  powers  were  brought  into  play, 
and  the  consequence  was  that  nothing  was  decided  upon, 
and  all,  for  a  long  time,  remained  in  a  state  of  uncer- 
tainty. The  Catholic  world  awaited  the  result  with  impa- 
tience and  anxiety;  the  minds  of  all  were  agitated  and 
alarmed  at  a  ^prolongation  of  the  sittings,  to  which,  it  ap- 
peared, there  was  to  be  no  end.  In  this  state  of  affairs. 
Cardinal  Othc  Truschez,  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  proposed 
to  consult  the  General  of  the  Jesuits,  and  accordingly 
sent  for  him.  When  the  learned  and  pious  Laynez  made 
his  appearance,  the  cardinals,  who  remembered  him  in  the 
Council  of  Trent,  were  all  struck  with  the  same  idea,  that 
of  makinii  the  humble  Jesuit  the  choice  of  the  conclave. 
The  idea  met  the  approbation  of  all,  and  was  about  being 
acted  upon,  when,  all  at  once,  it  occurred  to  them  that  a 
custom,  from  which  they  could  not  depart  without  expos- 
ing themselves  to  serious  diflficulties,  required  them  to 
elect  the  successor  of  the  deceased  Pontifl"  from  among 


100  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY   OP   JESUS. 

the  members  of  the  Sacred  Colleire.  Upon  this,  all  the 
votes  that  were  to  have  been  east  for  the  General  of  the 
Jesuits  were  given  in  favor  of  Cardina.  Iledici,  who  was 
duly  elected,  and  took  the  name  of  Pius  IV. 

II. 

The  three  first  years  of  the  Generalship  of  Laynez 
were  about  to  expire.  Paul  IV  had  expressed  a  wish  that 
the  election  of  a  General  should  be  triennial ;  and,  although 
such  a  clause  had  not  been  incorporated  in  the  constitution 
of  the  society,  Laynez,  being  aware  of  the  fact,  felt  it  to 
be  his  duty  to  intimate  to  the  newly-elected  Pope,  and  to 
the  society,  his  intention  of  resigning  his  charge.  By  this 
proceeding  he  showed  entire  submission  to  the  Pope,  and 
again  brought  forward  this  important  question  for  final 
solution.  Pius  IV  would  not  listen  to  the  proposed 
resignation  of  Laynez,  and  the  assistant  Provincials  took 
the  same  view ;  but  Laynez,  desiring  that  the  question 
should  be  settled  for  the  future,  ordered  au  the  professed 
members  of  the  society,  in  virtue  of  holy  obedience,  to 
send  in  their  opinions,  in  writing,  upon  this  important 
point,  and  added  that  he  had  appointed  a  commission  to 
receive  and  collect  these  opinions,  he  himself  only  desir- 
ing to  know  the  conclusion  arrived  at.  Without  a  single 
exception,  all  desired  that  the  Genera!  shoull  continue  to 
hold  his  office  for  life.  Father  Bobadilla,  who  was  at  the 
time  at  Ragusa,  addressed  his  answer  to  Laynez  person- 
ally, and  the  peculiarity  of  this  document  warrants  its 
quotation  here. 

"As  for  the  Generalship,''  wrote  he,  ''my  opmion  is, 
that,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  constitution,  t 
should  be  for  life.  I  would  desire  that  it  might  be  so 
lasting  in  your  hands  that  you  might  hold  it  for  another 
hundred  years ;  and,  if  after  your  death  it  were  permitted 
to  you  to  rise  again,  my  opinion  is  that  it  should  be  re- 


QENERALSUIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.     101 

stored  to  you,  and  tliat  you  should  hold  it  until  the  Day 
of  Judgment.  And  I  implore  you,  by  your  love  of  Jesus 
Christ,  to  retain,  with  peace  and  gladness,  the  charge  which 
has  been  imposed  upon  you.  These  sentiments,  which 
are  deeply  engraven  on  my  heart,  I  here  subscribe  with 
my  own  hand,  ad  perpetuam  rei  memoriam.^^ 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff  had  decided  that  the  General 
should  hold  his  office  for  life,  and  in  this  view  the  society 
unanimously  coincided.  Father  Laynez  was,  therefore, 
compelled  to  retain  his  position.  The  Holy  Father  not 
only  tenderly  loved  the  society,  but  regarded  it  as  a  great 
glory  to  the  Church,  and  on  all  occasions  evinced  for  it 
the  most  paternal  solicitude,  ever  aiding  it  by  his  power- 
ful protection. 

The  houses  and  colleges  of  the  society  went  on  increas- 
ing without  intermission,  and  there  arose  frequent  disputes 
with  other  religious  orders  in  regard  to  the  distance  that 
should  separate  the  foundation  of  one  Order  from  that  of 
another.  The  distance  that  had  been  legally  fixed  upon 
was  one  hundred  and  forty  rods  (^canncs).^  Pope  Pius 
IV  made  an  exception  to  this  regulation  in  favor  of  the 
Jesuits,  ani,  by  a  Bull,  bearing  date  April  13,  1561, 
authorized  them  to  establish  houses  and  extend  the  so- 
ciety, gaaranteeing  them  from  a  repetition  of  the  perse- 
cutions to  which  they  had  been  subjected,  on  this  score, 


at  L5araL>ossa. 


It  was  a  common  occurrence  for  the  universities  to  re- 
fuse to  confer  the  degree  of  Doctor  upon  candidates  who 
had  made  their  studies  under  the  Jesuits.  The  society 
taught  gratuitously,  while  the  universities  placed  so  high 
a  price  on  the  conferring  of  degrees,  as  frequently  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  many  of  the  students  meeting  the 
heavy  demand.     Moreover,  in  several  cities  they  required 

*  The  canne  measures  about  one  metre  and  seventy  centimetres. 


102  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

them  to  take  an  oath  which  was  repugnant  to  their  con- 
science. Laynez,  therefore,  implored  the  Pope  to  free  the 
society  from  this  entire  dependence  upon  the  universities, 
and,  by  a  Bull,  dated  August  19,  1561,  Pius  IV  granted 
the  privilege,  in  perpetuity,  to  the  General  of  the  society, 
either  personally  or  by  delegation,  to  confer  on  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Order  and  the  students  of  their  colleges  the 
degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  Licenciate,  Master  of  Arts, 
and  Doctor ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  provided  that 
the  rich  should  pay  to  the  universities  the  usual  tax  fixed 
for  the  various  grades.  This  Bull,  the  necessity  for  which 
was  beyond  all  dispute,  tended,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to 
exasperate  the  universities,  and  to  increase  and  perpetuate 
their  feelings  of  animosity  toward  the  Jesuits. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  society  was  making   rapid   strides 
in  France.     Upon  the  death  of  Henry  II   the   disciples   of 
Calvin    seemed    to    revive,    and    exerted    themselves    with 
more   than    ordinary  vigor.     They  had   succeeded   in    insin- 
uating themselves  into  most  of  the  public  bodies   througli- 
out  the   country,  and   had    even    obtained  a  footing   among 
some   of  the   religious   orders.     They  had   made   proselytes 
in   numbers,   and   every-where  they   had  caused    the    most 
deplorable   ravages.      In    the   midst    of   this    calamity,    the 
idea  suggested  itself  to  several   bishops   that  the   best   and 
only  remedy  for  the  deplorable  state   of  things  was   to   se- 
cure the  services  of  the  Jesuits  in  their  respective  dioceses, 
and   Robert   de   Pelleve,  Bishop   of   Pamiers,  was   commis- 
sioned  to   solicit   their    assistance.      He    accordingly   wrote 
to  Father  Laynez,  setting  forth  the  deplorable  condition 
of  things  in   the  south  of  France,  and  imploring  him  to 
send  to  their  aid  some  members  of  the  society;  and  he 
urged  particularly  that  Father  Edmond  Auger  might  be 
of  the  number,  for  he  felt  assured   that,  from   his  many 
attractive  qualities,  he  was  mo^e  likely  to  meet  with  suc- 
cess.    The  Calvinists,  on  learning  that  the  Jesuits  were 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER  JAMES    LAYNEZ.  103 

expected,  offered  public  indignity  to  the  prelates  wlio  hud 
invited  them.  In  order  to  avoid  these  attacks,  the  Bjshop 
withdrew  from  Pamiers,  and  when,  in  the  month  of  Oc- 
tober, 1559,  the  Fathers  arrived,  they  found  themselves 
in  a  strange  city,  without  a  shelter,  devoid  of  resources, 
and  without  protection.  There  were  three  Fathers  who 
came  on  this  arduous  mission — Pelletier,  Emond  Auger, 
and  John  Roger — who,  notwithstanding  their  lonely  con- 
dition, were  no  more  disconcerted  by  it  than  they  were 
with  the  open  insults  and  jeers  with  which  they  were  as- 
sailed by  the  sectarians,  whose  favorite  epithet  applied  to 
them  was  Papist.  To  this  the  Jesuits  simply  but  firmly 
replied,  that  devotion  and  attachment  to  the  Holy  See  was 
their  glory,  adding  that  they  were  prepared  to  sustain 
and  defend  its  rights,  and  that  this  was  part  of  their 
mission.  This  declaration  excited  public  curiosity.  The 
Fathers  preached,  carrying  conviction  home  to  all  who 
heard  them.  The  Catholics  renounced  the  heretical  errors, 
and  once  more  the  faith  was  revived  and  fortified  in  the 
city  of  Pamiers.  In  compliance  with  the  desire  of  the 
Bishop,  a  college  of  the  society  was  founded  in  the  city, 
and  was  soon  filled  with  students,  who  flocked  in  numbers 
from  all  parts.  Finally,  through  the  untiring  exertions 
and  zeal  of  these  holy  men,  the  entire  district  was  saved 
from  the  fatal  errors  with  which  it  had  been  menaced. 
The  next  field  of  labor  was  Toulouse,  whither  Father 
Pelletier  proceeded  alone.  He  preached  during  Lent,  and 
was  so  entirely  successful  in  his  efi'orts  against  heresy, 
that  its  ministers  abandoned  the  place.  At  the  same  time, 
Cardinal  de  Tournon  summoned  Father  Emond  to  Dau- 
phiny,  where  his  labors  resulted  in  the  entire  expul- 
sion of  the  heretical  teachers  from  that  province.  In  fact,  it 
is  fully  borne  out  by  history  that  wherever  the  Jesuits 
preached  they  succeedjid  in  bringing  back  the  Calvinists 
to  the  bosom  of  the  Church ;  their  books  were  destroyed 
11 


104  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

and  their  preachers  compelled  to  flee.  But,  as  yet  the 
number  of  the  disciples  of  St.  Ignatius  in  France  was 
limited. 

In  Paris,  the  Protestants,  feeling  themselves  sustained 
by  the  Prince  of  Conde,  several  members  of  Parliament, 
and  the  partisans  of  the  universities,  had  become  exact- 
ins:,  and  sought  to  enter  into  neji^otiation  with  the  court 
as  on  an  equal  footing.  They  wished  to  have  entire 
freedom  in  the  propagation  of  their  doctrines,  and  con- 
trol of  their  clergy.  They  also  demanded  houses  of  wor- 
ship, and  it  was  well  known  that,  in  case  of  necessity, 
they  would  have  recourse  to  arms  to  enforce  that  which 
might  be  refused  to  them.  They  had  already  seen 
princes  obliged  to  use  them  as  political  instruments. 
Francis  I  had  employed  them  against  Charles  V,  who, 
in  his  turn,  used  them  against  the  Popes  ;  they,  theie- 
fore,  were  fully  aware  of  their  power.  The  court  sought 
to  come  to  an  understanding  with  them,  but  was  far  from 
being  willing  to  yield  to  their  exacting  demands.  They 
had  already  held  conferences  in  Germany,  and  they  asked 
to  hold  similar  meetings  in  France,  as  a  means  whereby 
their  public  speakers  could  address  themselves  directly  to 
persons  of  the  highest  distinction,  as  well  as  to  the  most 
learned  divines  ;  and  by  this  means  they  hoped  to  win 
some  of  them  over.  They  succeeded  in  obtaining  this 
concession,  and  the  conference  was  appointed  to  take 
place  at  Poissy,  on  the  31st  of  July,  1561. 

The  Pope,  who  beheld  with  regret  and  pain  these  meet- 
ins-s,  which  were  alwavs  without  result,  and  desirinir  that 
all  should  await  the  final  and  sovereign  decision  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  commanded  the  General  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  to  repair  to  the  synod,  and  to  use  his  best  efforts 
to  bring  its  labors  to  a  speedy  close.  He  thought,  also, 
that  his  presence  in  Paris  might  hasten  the  admission  o^ 
the  Jesuits  into  that  diocese. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    f'ATIIER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  105 

Lnjnez,  prior  to  his  departure,  confided  the  charge  of 
Vicar-General  to  Francis  Borgia,  who  had  then  just  ar- 
rived in  Rome,  and  possessed  the  full  confidence  of  the 
Roman  court,  and  particularly  that  of  Cardinal  Charles 
Borromeo,  the  Pope's  nephew.  This  afi"air  settled,  the 
Father-General  quitted  Rome,  accompanied  by  Father 
Polanco,  and  by  Cardinal  Hippolito  d'Este,  who  was 
likewise  going  to  take  part  in  the  conference  at   Poissy. 

III. 

The  contest  continued  between  the  court  and  the  Jes- 
uits, on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Bishop  of  Paris,  the 
University,  and  the  Parliament  on  the  other,  without  lead- 
ing to  any  result.  The  court  renewed  its  application  to 
Parliament  for  the  judicial  approval  of  the  letters  patent 
granted  by  the  King  to  the  Jesuits,  while  the  only  action 
taken  by  the  Parliament  was  a  reiteration  of  its  remon- 
strance ;  thus  the  question  remained  undecided,  not  hav- 
ing advanced  one  step.  After  the  death  of  Henry  II, 
Father  Ponce  Cogordan  urged  Catharine  of  Medicis  to 
show  a  bold  front  against  the  incursions  of  heresy,  by  at 
once  compelling  the  Parliament  to  acknowledge  and  re- 
ceive the  Jesuits.  The  Queen  was  fully  aware  of  the 
delicacy  and  perils  of  the  position  in  which  she  was 
placed.  She  promised  her  authority  and  protection,  for 
she  could  not  help  seeing  the  indifference  of  the  majority 
of  the  clergy,  in  the  face  of  the  continual  and  daily  in- 
creasing progress  of  Calvinism. 

On  the  12th  of  February,  1560,  new  orders  were  given 
to  Parliament  to  record  the  letters  patent  granted  by 
Henry  II,  which  had  been  deposited  in  the  archives  eight 
jears  before  ;  but  the  Parliament  was  as  intractable  as  ever. 
On  the  25th  of  April  following,  Francis  II  issued  new  let- 
ters patent,  with  orders  for  their  immediate  enrollment, 
*'  notwitlistanding  the  remonstrances  of  the  Assembly  and 


106  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  the  Bishop  of  Paris."  Parliament  replied  that  these 
letters,  and  the  statutes  of  the  students  of  the  Jesuits, 
should  be  communicated  to  the  Bishop  of  Paris,  and 
Eustache  de  Bellay  submitted  them  to  the  four  faculties 
of  the  University.  Thus  was  displayed  a  determination, 
on  one  side  and  the  other,  not  to  submit  even  to  the 
authority  of  royalty.  The  four  faculties  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Jesuits  were  inadmissible,  on  the 
irround  that  that  Order  "  had  excessive  privileges  ac- 
corded them  to  preach,  and  yet  no  particular  practices 
by  which  they  could  be  distinguished  from  the  laity,  or 
common  people,  and  that  they  had  not  the  approval  of 
any  council,  either  general  or  provincial."  These  reasons 
were  very  trifling.  The  Jesuits  soon  removed  the  ob- 
stacle by  addressing  a  petition  to  the  King,  in  which  they 
set  forth  that  they  would  use  their  privileges  only  in  so 
far  as  they  were  in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  the  country 
and  to  the  Church  in  France  ;  and  they  declared  jtheir 
willingness  to  renounce  all  others.  Eustache  de  Bellay 
had  no  further  objection,  and  was  about  to  yield,  when 
the  idea  suggested  itself  of  exacting  from  them  a  condi- 
tion that  they  would  cease  to  bear  the  name  of  Jesuits, 
or  to  apply  to  their  society  the  name  of  Jesus  ;  and  that, 
moreover,  they  should  not  be  considered  as  a  religious 
order  in  the  diocese  of  Paris,  but  be  designated  simply 
as  members  of  a  society.  The  Parliament,  coinciding  in 
these  views,  would  yield  to  the  King's  desire  only  on  these 
'conditions. 

After  the  death  of  Francis  II,  Charles  IX  being  a  minor, 
the  Queen  mother  was  appointed  Eegent.  Father  Co- 
gordan  renewed  his  entreaties  both  to  her  and  to  her 
council.  The  new  King  then  applied  to  Parliament  to 
have  them  recoirnize  the  Jesuits  at  once,  or  to  make  known 
the   reasons    of   their    refusal  within   a   fortnight.     The 


GENERALSniP   OP    FATHER    JAMES- LAYNEZ.  107 

Parliament,  unable  lon2;er  to  defer  action  in  the  matter, 
isumnioned  Cogordan  to  appear  before  it. 

"  Tell  us,"  said  the  President  to  Father  Cogordan, 
"  strange  men  that  you  are,  what  means  of  existence 
have  you  to  depend  upon,  in  these  calamitous  times, 
when  the  charity  of  many  has  grown  cold?" 

"  The  charity  of  several,  doubtless,  has  cooled,"  an- 
swered the  Jesuit,  "  but  not  that  of  all.  Our  Lord  will 
never  refuse  the  necessaries  of  life  to  the  indiirent  who 
serve  Ilim  piously  and  uprightly,  no  matter  whether  they 
be  poor  from  necessity  or  from  choice." 

The  President  then  read  the  decree  of  the  Sorbonne, 
stopping  at  the  conclusion  of  each  sentence  to  ask  the 
Father  what  reply  he  had  to  make.  Father  Cogordan  ad- 
dressed the  assembly,  with  so  much  eloquence,  and  so  clearly 
and  energetically  exposed  the  plans  and  projects  of  the  Cal- 
vinists,  in  this  affair,  as  well  as  the  machinations  and  col- 
lusions existing  between  them  and  the  University  for  the 
purpose  of  attaining  their  ends,  that  several  of  the  mem- 
bers declared  the  decree  to  be  "  futile  and  erroneous." 
It  was  decided  that  the  matter  should  be  referred  to  the 
States  General,  or  to  the  next  National  Council,  In  the 
interim,  the  nobility  of  Auvergne  entreated  that  the  Jes- 
uits might  be  admitted  into  all  the  towns  of  the  province, 
saying,  "  Unless  the  King  wishes  the  whole  of  Auvergne 
to  fall  into  heresy,  it  is  necessary  that  the  Society  of  Jesus 
should  be  admitted  into  France." 

Meanwhile,  the  National  Council  was  opened  at  Poissy 
on  the  day  fixed  upon,  and  held  its  first  sitting  in  the 
refectory  of  the  Royal  Monastery  of  the  Dominicans. 
Cardinal  de  Tournan  presided,  and  there  were  present 
the  Queen  Regent,  the  King,  and  the  entire  court,  while 
Cardinals  d'Armagnac,  de  Bourbon,  de  Lorraine,  de  Chat- 
tillon,  and  de  Guise,  forty  Archbishops  and  Bishops, 
11* 


108  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

and  a  great  many  Doctors,  took  part  in  the  prcceedings. 
The  most  celebrated  Calvinist  ministers  were  also  col- 
lected there  by  their  partisans,  at  the  head  of  whom  were 
the  Kins  of  Navarre  and  the  Prince  of  Conde. 

Father  Laynez  had  been  in  the  synod  but  a  few  days, 
when,  on  the  26th  of  September,  he  was  much  shocked  and 
grieved  by  the  fearful  blasphemies  which  had  fallen  from 
the  lips  of  one  Peter  Martyr,  an  apostate  monk.  In  the 
presence  of  the  Queen  and  young  King,  the  good  Father 
delivered  a  scathing  and  vehement  discourse  upon  the 
dangers  of  such  assemblies,  and  addressed  himself  in  a 
forcible  manner  to  the  Queen,  who,  yielding  to  the  solicit- 
ations of  the  heretics,  had  sanctioned  them.  He  pointed 
out  to  her,  and  expatiated  upon,  the  indecency  and  danger 
of  this  sort  of  discussions,  more  particularly  at  a  time 
when  the  Council  of  Trent,  which  had  been  convoked  by 
the  Sovereign  Pontiif,  was  about  definitely  to  settle  all  the 
questions  in  dispute.  He  addressed  the  apostate  monk  as 
Brother  Martyr,  and  by  his  pungent  remarks  caused  a 
blush  to  suifuse  his  countenance.  He  then  dwe'tupon  the 
impropriety  of  permitting  any  but  theologians  10  be  pres- 
ent at  these  meetings.  ''There  would  be  this  ad'l'tional 
advantage,"  said  he,  "  that  your  Majesty  and  these  right 
honorable  nobles  would  be  spared  the  tediousness  of  such 
protracted  and  intricate  discussions."  This  was  in  plain 
language,  intimating  that  neither  the  presence  of  Catha- 
rine de  Medicis  nor  that  of  the  youthful  King  were  desir- 
able in  such  an  assembly.  The  Queen,  unaccustomed 
to  be  addressed  thus  plainly  and  openly,  could  not  conceal 
her  displeasure,  which  was  unmistakably  indicated  in  her 
manner,  and  by  the  expression  of  her  countenance,  and,  in 
spite  of  her  eifort  to  conceal  her  feelings,  she  was  seen  to 
shed  tears.  But  this  did  not,  in  the  least,  aifect  the  Jesuit 
Father.  On  the  following  day,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  who 
was  much  attached  to  the  Father  General,  said  to  him  : 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JAMEfe    LAYNEZ.  109 

"Fatlier,  are  you  aware  that  the  Queen  is  much  dis- 
pleased with  you,  and  that  you  have  caused  her  to  weep  ?" 

"  I  know  Catharine  de  Medicis  too  well,"  replied  Father 
Laynez,  smiling.  She  is  a  great  dissembler;  but,  fear 
not;  she  can  not  deceive  me." 

The  Queen,  the  King,  and  the  nobles  of  the  court  ap- 
peared no  more  at  the  discussions. 

The  result  of  the  conferences  was  the  adoption  of  a 
Rule  of  Faith  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  to 
which  the  Protestants  had  agreed  to  subscribe  as  well  as 
the  Catholics ;  but,  when  the  time  came,  they  refused  to 
sign  it,  and  the  Synod  was  dissolved  on  the  14th  of  Oc- 
tober. 

A  few  days  before,  on  the  30th  September,  Calvin,  who 
had  been  fully  informed  of  all  that  had  taken  place  in 
the  assembly,  thus  wrote  to  one  of  his  coreligionists: 
"  Use  your  best  endeavors  to  rid  the  country  of  these 
zealous  scoundrels,  who  not  only  induce  the  people,  by 
their  speeclies,  to  rise  against  us,  but  blacken  our  char- 
acters, impugn  our  motives,  and  represent  our  creed  as 
visionary.  Such  monsters  should  be  dealt  with  as  was  done 
here  in  the  execution  of  Michael  Servetus,  the  Spaniard." 
It  was  well  known  that  the  latter  was  burned  alive  by  the 
order  of  Calvin.  Such  was  the  speedy  method  which  he 
suggested  to  "  rid  the  country  of  these  monsters,"  who,  by 
their  apostolical  zeal,  impeded  the  progress  of  his  perni- 
cious doctrines.  Such  henceforth  was  the  toleration  of 
those  who  had  never  ceased  to  accuse  the  Catholics  of 
intolerance.  Calvin  ought  to  have  known  that  if  he  burned 
one  Jesuit  ten  more  would  have  immediately  come  forward 
to  seek  the  like  honor. 

Father  Laynez  prolonged  his  stay  in  Paris,  in  order,  by 
his  preaching  and  by  the  influence  he  had  acquired  at  the 
court,  to  fight  against  the  errors  of  Calvinism.  The  here- 
tics  asked   for   places   of  worship,    but   the   council   of  the 


110  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Queen  refused  to  comply  with  the  request.  Laynez  ad- 
dressed a  memorial  to  the  Queen  upon  this  subject,  and 
pointed  out  to  her  so  forcibly  the  danger  to  the  Church 
and  state  that  such  a  concession  would  entail,  that,  appre- 
,  dating  his  arguments,  she  refused  to  sanction  the  erec- 
tion of  Protestant  places  of  worship.  The  refusal  led 
to  the  conspiracy  of  Amboise.  The  heretics,  fully  aware 
of  their  power,  did  not  hesitate  to  throw  off  the  mask, 
and  to  have  recourse  to  arms  against  the  royal  author- 
ity ;  and,  as  they  had  succeeded  in  their  revolt  in  Ger- 
many, so,  in  like  manner,  did  they  accomplish  their  ends 
in  France,  which  was  weak  enough  to  yield  to  their  de- 
mands in  order  to  induce  them  to  lay  down  their  arms. 
But  it  was  not  long  before  she  repented  of  the  step. 
The  Prince  of  Conde  had  foreseen  this  result.  In  his  ap- 
prehensions of  the  incalculable  evils  which  would  follow, 
he  had  consulted  Father  Laynez  on  the  best  means  to  be 
adopted  to  avert  them.  The  Jesuit  Father  assured  him 
that  he  saw  no  other  remedy  than  in  the  return  of  the 
heretics  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  In  jrder  to  bring 
this  about,  it  was  desirable  that  their  leaders  and  divines 
should  meet  in  that  conference  which  they  had  so  long 
sought,  and  of  which,  when  granted,  they  w  .uld  not  avail 
themselves.  Had  they  been  honest  in  their  ii/entions, 
they  would  have  been  convinced  of  their  er:ois.  "To 
see  this  much-desired  union,"  said  Father  Laynez  to  thf» 
Prince,  "  I  would  sacrifice  a  hundred  lives,  if  i  had  as 
many  to  offer." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  prelates  who  were  present  at  the 
Council  of  Trent,  which  had  resumed  its  discussions  since 
the  8th  of  January,  1562,  sought  the  benefit  of  the  learn- 
ing, logic,  and  eloquence  of  Father  Laynez.  The  Pope, 
therefore,  ordered  him  to  accede,  with  as  little  delay  as 
possible,  to  the  wishes  thus  expressed,  and  the  legate 
having  made  every  necessary  arrangement  for  his  journey, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.     IH 

in  order  to  hasten  his  arrival,  he  reached  Trent  about  the 
middle  of  the  month  of  August,  1562,  and,  on  making  his 
appearance  in  the  august  assemblage,  the  Cardinal  Leg- 
ates assigned  to  him  the  first  place  before  the  generals 
of  the  religious  orders  ;  but  the  humble  Jesuit,  with  a 
modest  bow,  retired  and  took  his  seat  on  the  lowest 
bench.  The  prelates,  however,  insisted,  and  Laynez,  at 
once  perceiving  the  effect  produced  by  this  mark  of 
distinction,  which  elicited  murmurs  of  disapprobation 
among  the  generals,  entreated  the  legates  to  allow  him  to 
retain  the  seat  he  had  selected:  "I  conjure  your  emi- 
nences to  urge  me  no  further,  but  to  have  some  regard 
and  respect  for  the  seniority  of  the  other  orders."  "  If 
we  give  way  to  the  humility  of  your  Reverence,  Father," 
replied  the  legates,  "  it  might  establish  a  precedent  in 
the  hierarchy  for  the  future,  and  to  that  we  can  not  con- 
sent ;  in  order,  therefore,  to  conciliate  all,  we  insist  upon 
your  Reverence  taking  your  place  among  the  bishops." 

Such  respect  paid  to  the  learning,  talent,  and  virtue  of 
the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  by  the  Legates  of  the 
Holy  See,  and  concurred  in  by  the  entire  episcopacy  pres- 
ent, was  a  real  coup  d'etat  in  favor  of  the  entire  Order, 
and,  therefore,  well  calculated  to  create  new  rivalries  ;  for 
human  nature  is  ever  the  same,  and,  unless  humility  pre- 
dominates over  all  other  virtues,  it  is  next  to  impossible 
for  an  individual  to  overcome  that  greatest  of  all  trials — 
jealousy;  especially  when  he  feels  that  a  slight  has  been 
passed  upon  the  body  to  which  he  belongs,  or  its  repu 
tation  impugned. 

The  monastic  orders  claimed  precedence,  on  the  ground 
that  they  were  of  ancient  while  the  Jesuits  were  but  of 
recent  date  in  the  Church.  It,  therefore,  became  necessary 
for  the  council  to  settle  this  dispute  forthwith  ;  ar  d  al- 
though, as  regards  any  benefit  to  the  society,  the  fact  was 
purely  accidental,  still  it  was  probable  that  it  entered  into 


112  HISTOJIY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  views  of  the  prelates  and  cardinals  composing  the 
majority  of  the  assembly,  who  gladly  availed  themselves  of 
this  happ3^  opportunity  to  recognize,  in  the  name  of  the 
Church,  the  essential  services  she  had  received  from  the 
Jesuits,  and  to  bear  a  solemn  testimony  of  gratitude  to  an 
order  so  envied  and  calumniated.^  They  published  a  df- 
ploma  setting  forth  the  case,  and,  among  other  things, 
said  of  the  Society  of  Jesus:  "This  society,  to  the  great 
advantage  of  souls,  embraces  numbers  of  Christian  and 
Pagan  countries.  Almighty  God  protecting  the  work  which 
they  have  commenced." 

St.  Charles  Borromeo  wrote  to  the  cardinals  assembled 
at  Trent : 

"I  deem  it  superfluous  to  adduce  the  motives  which  move  the 
Sovereign  Pontiif  to  cherish  the  society,  and  to  desire  its  admission 
into  all  the  Catholic  provinces.  As  feelings  of  aversion  are  enter- 
tained in  France  against  the  Jesuits,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  hopes 
that  the  council,  when  it  deals  with  the  regular  orders,  will  make 
honorable  mention  of  the  society,  in  order  to  recommend  it." 

The  members  of  the  council  spoke  from  their  places, 
thus  preventing  all  commotion,  and  preserving  that  calm 
demeanor  and  dignity  so  essential  in  discussions  of  the 
grave  nature  of  that  in  which  they  were  engaged.  The 
General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  having  to  speak  in  the 
discussion  on  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  the  Cardinal 
Legates,  at  the  request  of  the  bishops,  had  a  pulpit  pre- 
pared for  him,  in  order  that  no  one  should  miss  a  single 
word  of  his  discourse.     This   was  an    additional  trial   to 

*  At  the  same  time  the  apostate  Brother  Paolo  Sarpi  wrote,  for  the 
information  of  all,  ''There  is  nothing  of  more  importance  than  to 
ruin  the  reputation  of  the  Jesuits  ;  in  destroying  it,  you  ruin  Rome, 
and  if  Rome  is  ruined,  religion  will  reform  itself."  The  advice  here 
given  has  been  followed  in  all  periods,  but  the  constant  work  of  three 
centuries  has  not  been  able  to  accomplish  the  utter  "  ruin  of  the 
rejiutation  of  the  Jesuits  or  of  the  power  of  Rome." 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  113 

the  Jesuit's  humility  ;  hut,  the  legates  insisting,  Layncz 
had  to  obey.  His  pale  complexion  and  his  long  and 
attenuated  face  gave  proofs  of  much  suflfering,  while  his 
high  and  largely-developed  forehead,  his  strongly-marked 
aquiline  nose,  his  brilliant  and  piercing  eyes,  betokened 
the  man  of  deep  thought  and  lofty  intelligence  ;  the  mild- 
ness of  his  look,  his  benevolent  smile,  his  quiet  and  modest 
hearing,  inspired  confidence,  and  caused  him  to  be  re- 
spected and  beloved  as  a  man  and  as  a  religious. 

When  he  ascended  the  pulpit  which  had  been  prepared 
for  him,  every  eye  was  fixed  upon  the  Jesuit,  whose  ap- 
pearance was  so  poor  and  unassuming,  but  whose  celebrity 
was  European.  He  betrayed  not  the  least  emotion.  The 
sole  honor  he  sought  in  that  vast  assemblage  of  illustri- 
ous personages  and  most  learned  men  was  the  glory  of 
God  ;  his  only  ambition  the  triumph  of  the  Church,  He 
spoke  for  two  hours  and  a  half,  and  kept  the  whole  as- 
sembly in  a  state  of  suspense  and  surprise  by  the  brill- 
iancy of  his  discourse.  Never  before  did  he  display  such 
eloquence  ;  never  had  'his  logic  been  used  with  greater 
vigor  and  conclusiveness. 

At  the  close  of  his  address,  a  murmur  of  admiration 
resounded  throughout  the  council-chamber.  "  He  has 
answered  every  objection,"  said  some.  "  He  has  dis- 
pelled every  doubt,"  said  others  ;  "  he  has  left  nothing 
to  answer."  He  was  assailed  with  congratulations  on  all 
sides  ;  his  triumph  was  complete.  Providence  had  re- 
served for  him  another,  which  would  equally  reflect  upon 
the  whole  society. 

Cardinal  Hercules  de  Gonzaga,  the  legate  who  presided 
at  the  council,  being  taken  aangerously  ill,  expressed  a 
desire  to  have  the  spiritual  attendance  of  Father  Laynez. 
He  wished  I'or  his  exhortations  and  consolations  in  his 
last  moments,  to  prepare  him  for  his  entrance  into  eter- 
nity.    This  preference  shown  for  the  Jesuit  over  all  the 


114  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

princes  of  the  Church  congregated  at  Trent,  was  such  a 
mark  of  high  esteem  for  the  society  that  its  enemies  and 
rivals  took  oiFense  at  it — an  offense  which  was  easily  un- 
derstood. They  ceased  not  in  their  endeavors  "  to  ruin 
the  reputation  of  the  Jesuits,"  in  which  they  hut  carried 
out  the  instructions  given  them  by  the  apostate  Sarpi,  in 
order  to  "  ruin  Rome,"  while,  in  fact,  all  their  efforts 
tended  only  to  the  triumph  of  Rome  and  the  increase  of 
the  reputation  of  the  Jesuits. 

It  was  not  sufficient  that  the  council  had  cleared  up 
all  the  questions  that  had  been  submitted  to  it ;  it  had 
also  investigated  the  cause  of  the  evils  which  afflicted  the 
Church.  It  had  discovered  that  these  causes  were,  prin- 
cipally, the  ignorance  and  immorality  of  a  great  portion 
of  the  clergy  and  the  monastic  orders,  and  it  had  de- 
cided that  the  best  remedy  for  this  great  evil  was  to 
prepare  Christian  generations  by  a  good  system  of  educa- 
tion. The  majority  of  the  bishops  requested  that  the 
number  of  the  seminaries  and  colleges  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus  should  be  increased  every-where  ;  and  the  Count 
Lune,  a  German,  and  ambassador  of  Philip  II,  being  con- 
sulted as  to  the  means  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of 
Germany  and  Spain,  and  of  securing  them  against  her- 
esy, answered:  "I  know  only  two  methods:  train  good 
preachers,  and  propagate  the  Society  of  Jesus."  Other 
ambassadors  made  similar  replies. 

The  Council  of  Trent  closed  its  sittings  on  the  4th  of 
December,  15G3. 

IV, 

Francis  de  Beaumont,  Baron  des  Adrets,  finding  the 
doctrine  of  Calvin  easier  than  that  of  the  Church,  and 
its  morals  more  in  accordance  with  his  taste  and  passions 
than  those  of  the  Gospel,  had  become  a  Huguenot.  He 
traversed  Dauphiny  at  the  head  of  a  few  thousand  fanat- 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   JAMES    LAYNEZ.  115 

ical  peasants,  who  had  been  misled  by  the  ministers  of 
Calvin.  They  burned  clmrches,  persecuted  the  Catholics, 
•whom  they  massacred  without  pity,  pillaged  their  towns, 
and  carried  desolation  into  villages,  putting  all  to  fire 
and  sword.  Jle  was  the  terror  and  the  scourge  of  the 
southern  provinces. 

While  in  the  midst  of  the  frightful  ravages  which  he 
was  committing,  he  one  day.gathered  his  soldiers  around 
him,  and,  haranguing  them,  directed  them  to  attack 
Valence:  their  reward  would  be  worthy  of  their  cruelty;  it 
ife  a  Jesuit  that  is  promised  them.  At  the  name  of  Jesuit, 
the  infuriated  soldiery  shouted  with  fiendish  delight,  and 
directed  their  march  for  Valence. 

Lamothe  Gondrin,  Lieutenant  of  the  Province,  being 
warned  of  the  proposed  attack,  repaired  to  that  place, 
where  he  arrived  in  time  to  make  a  defense  of  the  town. 
But  all  his  efforts  could  not  save  it  from  the  invasion  of 
the  Protestants,  and  he  himself  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Baron  des  Adrcts,  who.  although  promising  to  spare 
his  life,  had  him  foully  assassinated.  Thus  did  the  Baron 
prove  himself  as  true  to  his  word  as  he  was  to  his  faith. 
He  next  sought  the  Jesuit  whom  he  had  promised  to  de- 
liver into  the  hands  of  the  murderers  composing  his 
army.  His  search  was  not  a  diflficult  one,  for  he  whom 
he  sought  was  to  be  seen  on  the  field  of  carnage,  there 
bending  over  the  wounded  and  the  dying,  offering  them 
spiritual  consolation,  and  preparing  them  to  receive  their 
reward  in  heaven.  It  was  the  good  Father  Emond  Auger, 
whose  name  was  known  and  venerated  throughout  the 
whole  of  Dauphiny.  The  soldiery  were  about  to  rush  upon 
and  mercilessly  massacre  him,  when  the  Calvinist  ministers 
cried  out : 

"  Hold !  A  Jesuit  merits  not  so  honorable  a  death ;  the 
gallows  alone  is  fit  for  him  !  " 

Immediately   the    Protestants    applauded,   and   made    the 
12 


116  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

streets  resound  with  tlie  cries  of  "To  the  gallows!  tlie 
Jesuit  to  the  gallows!"  The  soldiers  rushed  upon  their 
victim,  placed  a  cord  about  his  neck,  and  thus  conducted 
him  to  the  place  reserved  for  the  execution  of  criminals — 
the  populace  following  and  continuing  the  diabolical  cries 
they  had  before  set  up,  "  To  the  gallows !  to  the  gallows 
with  the  Jesuit! " 

The  good  Father  Emond,  a^  he  was  called  by  the  Cath- 
olics, did  not  betray  the  least  emotion.  With  firm  step, 
and  humble  though  dignified  bearing,  he  went  calmly  and 
boldly  to  death  ;  an  angelic  serenity  was  difi"used  over 
his  whole  countenance.  Arrived  at  the  place  of  execu- 
tion, he  ascended  the  scaflFold,  and  cast  a  gentle  and 
modest  glance  on  the  sacrilegious  crowd  who  desired  his 
death;  Jie  then  raised  his  eyes  toward  heaven,  with  a 
countenance  beaming  with  inefi"able  sweetness,  and,  once 
more  turning  toward  the  assembled  multitude  who  were 
thirsting  for  his  blood,  he  addressed  them  in  a  clear 
voice.  He  defended  truth,  called  upon  all  those  who  had 
abandoned  the  faith  to  repent,  and  exhibited  a  holy  joy 
in  the  very  face  of  the  death  which  awaited  him,  and  of 
which  he  considered  himself  unworthy.  He  felt  happy  in 
being  thus  condemned  to  an  ignominious  death  for  a 
cause  to  which  he  had  consecrated  his  life.  H's  inspired 
air,  the  sweetness  of  his  voice,  and  the  sublimity  of  his 
expression  puzzled  and  bewildered  the  ministers  of  Cal- 
vin. The  crowd  are  deeply  affected  and  moved,  even  to 
tears;  an  emeute  may  ensue.  On  the- other  hand,  what  a 
triumph  for  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  if,  instead  of 
putting  the  Jesuit  to  death,  they  should  succeed  in  making 
him  an  apostate !  This  appears  to  them  a  happy  idea,  and, 
accordingly,  they  set  to  work  to  attempt  its  accomplishment. 

The  Calvinist  ministers  were  so  many  apostates,  who 
hoped  to  lead  astray  a  disciple  of  Ignatius  of  Loyola  by 
the  same  means  by  which  they  themselves  had  been  se- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  117 

duced.     In   this  idea  they  were  not  very  far-seeing ;   but 
how  can  we  expect  to  receive  light  from  darkness? 

Peter  Viret,  one  of  the  preachers,  proceeded  in  all 
haste  to  the  Baron  des  Adrets,  and  requested  an  order 
adjourning  the  execution  of  the  Jesuit,  The  enraged 
Huguenot  listened  with  a  frown,  without  deigning  so 
much  as  to  look  at  Viret,  whom  he  did  not  even  answer. 
Viret  continued  : 

"I  only  ask  you,"  added  he,  "for  the  time  necessary 
to  discuss  a  few  points  of  religion  with  him,  in  order  to 
confound  him  publicly,  and  force  him  to  avow  his  defeat." 
"Do  what  you  like  with  him!"  thundered  forth  the  fe- 
rocious des  Adrets,  hastily  dismissing  the  apostate. 

Peter  Viret  returned  to  the  place  where  he  had  left  the 
Jesuit;  he  caused  him  to  descend  from  the  scafibld,  near 
which  he  had  remained.  They  overwhelmed  him  altern 
ately  with  caresses  and  threats,  flatteries  and  arguments. 
Nothing  was  omitted  to  induce  him  to  yield;  but  the  good 
Father  was  proof  against  all  their  wily  assaults. 

"  We  spare  your  life  until  to-morrow,"  said  one  of  the 
apostates  to  him;  "perhaps  you  will  reflect  upon  it." 

"  The  dun<z;eon  is  useful  to  collect  one's  thoughts  and  to 
lead  to  reflection,"  said  another.  They  then  confined  the 
angelic  Father  Emond  in  one  of  the  dungeons  usually 
assigned  to  the  most  dangerous  malefactors. 

On  the  following  day  they  proceeded  frantically  to  the 
prison.  The  dungeon  was  empty  !  God  had  refused  the 
crown  of  martyrdom  to  his  young  apostle.  He  had  assisted 
the  Catholics  of  Valence  to  enter  the  prison  during  the 
ni"ht,  and  to  liberate  their  beloved  Father,  conduct  him 
outside  the  town,  and  place  him  beyond  the  reach  of  his 
blood -thirskty  enemies. 

Some  days  after.  Father  Emond  was  in  Auvergne,  where 
he  publicly  preached  at  Clermont,  whence  he  proceeded 
to  Riom,  and  thence  again  to  Issoire,  there  to  reanimate 


118  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  faith  among  the  Catholics  and  preserve  them  from  the 
contagion  of  heresy.  Very  soon  the  Marshal  de  Vielle- 
ville,  and  the  Chapter  of  the  Cathedral  of  Lyons,  called 
him  to  that  city,  where  the  Catholic  worship  appeared  to 
have  been  abolished  forever  by  the  cruel  tyranny  of  the 
Protestants. 

Father  Emond,  on  arriving,  in  the  month  of  July,  met 
Father  Possevin,  who  had  been  likewise  called  to  the  aid 
and  comfort  of  the  Catholics.  Neither  one  nor  the  other 
feared  the  death  with  which  they  were  threatened ;  they 
were  ready  to  brave  it  in  defense  of  the  faith — happy  and 
proud  of  such  a  mission.  They  preached  with  marvellous 
success,  regaining  all  those  who  had  been  led  away  from 
the  true  fold,  and  giving  fresh  confidence  and  encourage- 
ment to  the  weak  and  faltering.  The  city  assumed  a  new 
aspect,  Catholic  worship  was  reestablished,  and  the  names 
of  the  Fathers  were  blessed  and  venerated  by  all.  But 
suddenly  the  plague,  which  had  made  fearful  ravages  in 
France,  broke  out  in  this  city,  in  a  most  violent  form, 
and  paralyzed  the  energy  of  the  entire  population. 
Every  one  who  could,  fled  precipitately  from  the  city, 
abandoning  the  poor,  who  had  no  other  alternative  but 
to  remain  in  the  town,  not  possessing  the  means  of  pro- 
viding themselves  a  home  in  a  purer  atmosphere. 

Father  Possevin  had  just  left  the  city  for  Avignon,  and 
Father  Emond  Ausrer  found  himself  alone  in  face  of  this 
cruel  scourge.  He,  in  nowise  discouraged,  went  from 
house  to  house,  comforting  the  sick,  consoling  and  strength- 
ening them,  not  only  with  his  spiritual  aid,  but  distrib- 
uting alms  and  relieving  the  temporal  necessities  of  all ; 
the  only  person  to  second  these  almost  superhuman  eflForts 
being  Andre  Amyot,  the  priest  who  had  received  him 
and  given  him  shelter  in  this  strange  place. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  comprehend  how  two  men  could 
suffice  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  immense  and  heroic 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.    119 

labor,  if  the  History  of  Lyons,  by  de  Rubys,  did  not 
give  the  details  of  "  the  admirable  devotion  of  Father 
Eraond  Auger  during  the  continuance  of  the  plague." 
Historians  assert  that  the  number  of  deaths  exceeded 
six  thousand.  At  one  time  the  terror  became  so  great 
that  the  voice  of  the  Jesuit,  so  much  beloved,  entirely 
failed  in  tranquillizing  the  public  excitement  and  restoring 
confidence.  It  was  then  that  the  good  Father  had  re- 
course to  Divine  aid.  He  made  a  solemn  vow,  in  the 
name  of  the  city  of  Lyons,  to  Nutre  Datne-dn-Fuy  en  Ve- 
la 7/  ;  immediately  the  plague  disappeared,  and  Lyons  was 
saved.  The  good  Father  proceeded  immediately  to  Puy, 
there  to  deposit,  at  the  feet  of  the  Divine  Mother  of  God, 
the  vow  of  the  people  of  Lyons. 

The  Lyonnese  desired  that  the  apostle,  whom  they 
called  their  Father,  and  to  whom  they  were  indebted  for 
the  cessation  of  the  plague,  should,  on  his  return,  receive 
a  lasting  memorial  of  their  heart-felt  gratitude.  They 
wished  to  make  him  a  present  worthy  of  acceptance  by  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  one  which,  they  felt 
assured,  he  would  receive  with  pleasure,  no  matter  how 
great  might  be  his  humility,  or  his  devotion  to  holy  pov- 
erty, the  more  so  because  he  had  just  been  made  Provin- 
cial of  Guyenne.  On  his  arrival  at  Lyons,  the  functiona- 
ries of  that  city  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  presented  to 
him  some  keys  on  a  silver  salver,  the  Provost  addressing 
him  in  the  following  words  : 

"  Father,  the  citizens  of  Lyons,  penetrated  with  grati- 
tude for  the  spiritual  good  you  have  done  to  them,  and 
in  acknowledgment  of  your  heroic  devotion  during  the 
plague,  from  which  you  have  delivered  them  entreat  your 
Reverence  to  accept  Trinity  College.  His  Grace,  tho 
Archbishop,^  unites  with  us  in  offering  this  mark  of  re- 


*'  Antoine  d'Albon. 
12* 


120  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

spect  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  to  whom  it  will  henceforth 
belong,  and  who  will  have  its  future  control." 

"  I  willingly  and  gratefully  accept  it,  in  the  name  of  the 
society,"  replied  Father  Eraond;  "but  on  one  condition: 
the  Calvinists  send  their  children  to  this  college,  which 
is  public  property;  the  deed  of  gift  must  secure  them  the 
right  of  gratuitously  educating  their  children  there,  as 
beibre." 

The  Protestants  did  not  desire  this  clause  in  their 
favor;  they  saw  in  it  but  an  additional  argument  against 
them,  for  education  was  far  from  being  gratuitous  in  their 
own  schools. 

The  plague,  which  had  caused  great  desolation  in  the 
city  of  Lyons,  visited  Paris,  and,  among  other  victims, 
carried  off  one  of  the  first  companions  of  Ignatius  of  Loy- 
ola— Pasquier  Brouet — who,  while  engaged  in  bestowing 
his  tender  care  upon  the  sufferers  from  the  infectious 
disease,  caught  the  contagion,  and  thus  died  in  the  exer- 
cise of  that  Divine  charity  to  which  he  had  devoted  him- 
self. Wherever  the  fearful  epidemic  had  made  its  ap- 
pearance, the  inhabitants  fled.  The  Jesuits  hastened  to 
the  very  scene  of  its  ravages  with  that  zeal,  self-abnega- 
tion, and  tender  charity  the  secret  of  which  they  alone 
seemed  to  possess.  In  all  those  places  where  the  people 
had  felt  the  consoling  effects  of  their  presence,  during  the 
prevalence  of  the  disease,  heresy  lost  all  that  it  had  pre- 
viously acquired,  and  as  soon  as  the  plague  had  disap- 
peared, the  people,  with  one  accord,  asked  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  house  of  that  Order  to  which  they  were 
indebted  for  such  benefactors.  While  the  universities 
sided  with  the  heretics  in  repelling  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
the  bishops,  magistrates,  nobility,  and  people  ardently  de- 
sired it.  Several  of  its  colleges  in  France,  Belgium,  the 
Rhenish  Provinces,  and  elsewhere,  had  no  other  origin 
than  the  heroic  devotion  of  the  Jesuits  during  the  ravages 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER   JAMES   LAYNEZ.  121 

of  the  plague,  wliich  at  that  time  infected  a  great  pari 
of  Europe,  and  to  which  a  vast  number  of  all  clatjses  of 
society  fell  victims. 

Y. 

In  Poland,  Father  Canisius  had  just  gained  a  brilliant 
victory  over  heresy,  in  the  presence  of  King  Sigismund 
and  the  whole  court,  at  the  Diet  of  Petrilcaw.  This  as- 
sembly, like  the  preceding  ones,  had  been  held  at  the 
solicitation  of  the  Protestants,  and  served  but  to  expose 
their  dishonesty  and  to  give  new  triumphs  to  the  Church. 
At  the  close  of  the  Diet,  Canisius  repaired  to  Augsburg, 
there  to  resume  the  contest  against  the  enemies  of  Catholi- 
cism. One  of  these,  Stephen  Agricola,  a  disciple  and 
friend  of  Melancthon,  desired  to  see  and  privately  to  con- 
verse with  this  humble  religious,  for  whom  sovereigns  and 
princes  contended,  whom  bishops  and  cardinals  consulted, 
whom  the  Pontifical  Court  honored  with  its  confidence,  and 
whose  advice  was  sought  by  all  the  great  personages  of 
the  time.  The  reception  which  Father  Canisius  gave  him 
was  marked  with  the  meekness  and  the  simple  though  dig- 
nified demeanor  which  he  possessed  in  a  high  degree,  and 
which  attracted  all  toward  him.  The  heart  of  the  here- 
tic was  touched  ;  he  made  known  his  doubts,  listened  to  the 
Father's  advice,  abided  by  his  decisions,  and  gave  himself 
up  so  unconsciously  to  his  direction,  that,  shortly  after- 
ward, he  openly  declared  himself  the  disciple  and  friend  of 
that  same  Jesuit  of  whom  he  had  been  the  avowed  enemy. 
This  conversion  carried  dismay  into  the  ranks  of  the  Lu- 
therans, who  vowed  vengeance  against  Canisius  for  having 
thus  robbed  them  of  so  great  a  prize.  Upon  this  subject 
the  good  Father  thus  wrote  to  Father  Laynez  : 

"  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  who  makes  his  servants  illustrious  by 
the  hatred  which  the  heretics  excite  against  them  in  Poland,  Bo- 
hemia, and  Germany.     By  the   atrocious   calumnies  they  propa- 


122  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

gate  against  me,  they  try  to  deprive  me  of  a  reputation. which  I 
do  not  pretend  to  possess.  They  pay  the  same  honor  to  all  the 
other  Fathers.  Soon,  perhaps,  these  threats  may  lead  to  blows 
and  the  most  deplorable  results.  Heaven  grant  that  the  more 
they  try  to  abuse  us,  the  greater  mny  be  the  efforts  we  make  to 
prove  to  them  our  Christian  charity!  They  are  our  persecutors, 
but  they  are  also  our  brothers.  We  must  love  them  for  the  love 
of  Jesus  Christ,  who  shed  His  blood  for  them,  and  because,  per- 
haps, they  sin  only  through  ignorance." 

The  day  after  Father  Canisius  wrote  these  lines,  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg  was  opened,  which  he  attended  in  the 
capacity  of  theologian  to  the  Emperor.  Subsequently,  at 
the  request  of  Cardinal  Osius,  legate  of  the  Holy  See, 
he  accompanied  him  to  Vienna,  where  he  undertook  the 
task  of  effecting  a  reconciliation  between  the  Empire  and 
the  Roman  Court. 

These  pacifications  effected,  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  Duke 
of  Bavaria,  who,  desiring  to  consult  hiiu,  had  invited  him 
to  his  court ;  he  then  returned  to  Augsburg.  But,  ere- 
long, the  Governor  of  Suabia  implored  his  powerful  aid 
in  his  provinces,  all  of  which  were  subsequently  visited 
by  Canisius,  who  preached  throughout  the  cities  and  vil- 
lages, visiting  even  the  poorest  hamlets,  every-where 
succeeding,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  in  eff'^cting  the  most 
salutary  reforms,  and  in  comforting,  consoling,  and  cheer- 
ing every  Christian  heart.  On  returning  to  Augsburg, 
the  bishop  announced  to  him  that  he  gave  the  direction 
of  the  University  of  Dillingen  to  the  Soaiety  of  Jesus. 
In  the  deed  of  gift,  the  Cardinal  Bishop  desired  thus  to 
explain  his  motives  : 

"That  which  has  particularly  induced  me  to  perform  this  good 
work  is  the  close  bond  of  friendship  which  has  bound  me  to 
Father  Peter  Canisius,  a  doctor  so  celebrated  for  his  eminent 
piety,  his  rare  learning,  and  the  incredible  fruits  which  he  has 
produced   in   the  city  of  Augsburg,  and  throughout  my  diocese^ 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.     123 

whether  in  the  conversion  of  heretics,  in  the  preservation  of  the 
faith  in  its  pristine  purity  among  the  Catholics,  or  in  the  in- 
stitution of  good  works  of  every  description,  to  wliich  end  he  has 
incessantly,  and  with  indefatigable  zeal,  applied  himself,  and 
with  a  success  which  it  is  impossible  to  overrate  or  sufficiently 
to  admire." 

While  the  Society  of  Jesus  struggled  with  so  much 
success  against  the  efforts  of  the  heretics  all  over  the 
continent  of  Europe,  several  of  its  members  clandes- 
tinely, at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  devoted  themselves  to 
succoring  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  Some  even  went  over 
to  England  ;  at  one  time  in  the  garb  of  a  peddler,  at 
another  in  some  different  disguise  ;  but  ever  with  the  cer- 
tainty, should  they  be  detected,  of  being  handed  over  to 
the  executioners  of  Elizabeth. 

The  heretics,  as  has  been  already  shown,  had  vowed 
vengeance  not  only  against  Peter  Canisius,  but  against 
the  entire  society;  for,  wherever  they  appeaired,  they  were 
sure  to  encounter  a  Jesuit,  ready  to  combat  their  errors, 
and  wrest  from  them  whatever  conquests  they  might  have 
made,  and  thus  serve  as  a  safeguard  to  those  Catholics 
who  wavered  in  their  faith. 

The  heretics,  feeling  confident  of  having  as  auxiliaries 
the  universities,  as  well  as  the  disaffected  clergy,  only 
awaited  the  opportunity  of  once  more  essaying  the  total 
destruction  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  ;  nor  was  it  long  be- 
fore this  looked-for  opportunity  presented  itself. 

Cardinal  Borromeo,  the  Pope's  nephew,  had  submitted 
himself  to  the  spiritual  control  and  guidance  of  the  Jes- 
uits. He  had  gone  through  the  Spiritual  Exercises^  from 
which  time  he  had  made  rapid  progress  in  spiritual  per- 
fection. This  was  sufficient  for  those  whom  hell  had 
chosen  as  its  instruments.  The  report  was  spread  abroad 
that  the  Jesuits  were  endeavorino;  to  induce  the  Cardinal 
to  join  their  society,  for  the  purpose  of  possessing  them- 


124  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

selves  not  only  of  liis  great  riches,  but  also  of  his  person. 
It,  therefore,  became  desirable  to  inform  the  Pope  of  this 
pretended  snare,  and  a  bishop  was  found  with  sufficient 
credulity  and  hardihood  to  consent  to  be  the  bearer  of 
these  tidings  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  whom  he  assured 
that  he  had  it  from  good  authority,  and  that  there  was 
no  doubt  about  it. 

The  Pope  was  greatly  moved  by  the  intelligence,  for 
he  tenderly  loved  Cardinal  Borromeo,  and  was  solicitous 
to  retain  him  near  himself  in  the  Sacred  College,  and 
yet  the  Jesuits  sought  to  remove  him!  His  Holiness 
did  not  hesitate  loudly  to  express  his  displeasure,  and  even 
to  allude  to  the  fact  as  one  of  ingratitude  on  the  part  of 
an  order  upon  which  he  had  always  so  freely  lavished 
his  favors.  This  was  the  culminating  point  of  the  d«^- 
signers  of  the  plot.  Could  they  but  succeed  in  prejudic- 
ing the  Pope  against  the  society,  they  might  well  hope  to 
accomplish  their  base  ends ;  all  that  was  necessary  was  to 
know  how  to  take  advanta2;e  of  the  dissatisf^i.  tion  which 
had  thus  been  aroused.  It  was  then  that  all  the  old  cal- 
umnies which  had  been  propagated  against  the  society, 
ever  since  its  oriuin,  were  airain  revived.  But  these  false- 
hoods,  which  had  always  been  so  triumphantly  refuted, 
might  be  again  disproved.  It  was,  consequently,  deemed 
advisable  to  invent  new  ones  ;  and,  all  infamous  and  in- 
credible as  they  were,  they  were  listened  to  and  repeated 
until  they  reached  the  Vatican. 

During  the  time  of  these  fresh  trials,  Father  Laynez  was 
sick,  but  so  soon  as  he  was  sufficiently  recovered,  he  pre- 
sented himself  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  and  pointed  out 
to  him  the  gross  absurdity  of  these  vile  calumnies.  The 
Pope  was  apprehensive  of  the  influence  of  Father  Ki- 
beira  over  Cardinal  Borromeo.  Father  Ribeira  received 
orders  to  proceed  to  the  Indies,  and  he  set  out,  with  a 
light  heart,  for  a  mission,  which  had  already  furnished  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.    125 

crown  of  iiiartyrdom  to  many  members  of  the  society. 
As  to  the  extreme  fervor  of  the  Cardinal,  the  Jesuits 
had,  from  the. very  first,  endeavored  to  restrain  it,  espe- 
cially in  regard  to  bodily  austerity,  and  never  had  they 
attempted  to  induce  that  Prince  of  the  Church  to  enter 
the  society.  "As  to  the  rest,"  said  Father  Layncz,  "it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  enemies  of  the  Church  should 
be  also  our  enemies.  They  attack  it  incessantly,  and  we 
are  never  weary  of  defending  it.  They  seek  to  overthrow 
the  authority  of  the  Holy  See;  we  employ  all  our  zeal 
to  uphold  it.  They  endeavor  to  weaken  and  destroy  the 
faith  of  Christian  souls,  and  day  and  night  we  labor  to 
reanimate  and  maintain  it  in  all  its  purity.  What  is 
there  astonishing  in  the  fact  that  the  heretics  ally  them- 
selves with  the  Proressors  of  Rome  to  ruin  us  and  to 
bring  about  the  destruction  of  our  society?" 

Pius  lY,  easily  convinced  by  the  simple  and  dignified 
words  of  the  General  of  the  society,  reproached  himself  for 
having  manifested  any  displeasure  toward  it,  especially  for 
having  listened  for  a  moment  to  such  calumnies,  and  he 
felt  called  upon  to  make  some  atonement,  which  he  most 
magnanimously  did.  He  visited  all  the  houses  of  the  so- 
ciety in  Rome,  and,  not  satisfied  with  publicly  expressing 
his  high  admiration  for  the  Jesuits,  he  wished  to  give  them 
a  more  tangible  and  lasting  proof  of  his  confidence,  by 
intrusting  to  them  the  seminary  which  he  had  just  estab- 
lished. Nay,  he  did  still  more;  he  ordered  Cardinal  Sa- 
vclli  to  summon  before  his  tribunal  the  bishop  who  had 
propagated  the  odious  accusations  which  had  been  concocted 
against  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  prelate  submitted  that 
he  could  produce  witnesses  to  support  his  statements,  and 
the  Cardinal  had  them  brought  forward.  They  were 
some  young  men  who  had  been  dismissed  from  the  Jesuit 
colleges  or  seminaries.  They  were  called  upon  to  furnish 
proof  of  their   charges,    in    which    they  essentially  and 


126  HISTORY  OF   THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

signally  failed,  and,  in  the  end,  the  calumniators  were 
compelled  to  retract  their  base  assertions.  A  publication 
had  been  widely  circulated  in  Italy,  Bohemia,  and  through- 
out the  German  states,  in  the  hope  of  destroying  forever 
the  reputation  of  the  children  of  St.  Ignatius.  The  au- 
thor of  the  foul  and  infamous  libel  was  condemned  to  a 
long  imprisonment.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff  addressed  a 
brief  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  dated  the  29th  of 
September,  15'34,  by  which  he  expressed  his  deep  regret 
at  the  defamatory  libels  which  had  been  circulated 
throughout  the  German  Empire  and  Italy,  and  informed 
him  of  the  measures  that  had  been  taken  to  make  known 
the  truth  and  confound  the  calumniators.* 
The  triumph  thus  achieved  was  complete. 

VI. 

The  good  work  commenced  by  Francis  Xavier  was 
courageously  continued  by  his  successors  in  the  Indies 
and  Japan.  Christianity  prospered,  and  spread  daily  its 
peaceful  influence  under  the  protection  of  the  great  Apos- 
tle of  the  East,  and  of  the  early  martyrs  of  the  society. 
The  people  of  the  island  of  Ceylon  were  all  Christians. 
Those  of  the  interior,  north  of  Goa,  had  requested  mis- 
sionaries to  be  sent  out  to  them,  and  they  sought  to  be 
baptized.  At  Tana,  the  newly  converted  had  built  a 
town,  which  consisted  entirely  of  Catholics,  while  at  Cu- 
man  they  erected  a  college.  The  aboriginal  inhabitants  of 
the  island  of  Ciorano  also  ardently  wished  to  have  the 
Jesuit  Fathers  among  them ;  but  the  number  of  the  society 
was  too  limited,  and  they  were  compelled  to  retard  their 
compliance  with  the  urgent  desire  of  this  people.  Not 
long  afterward,  the  port  of  Goa  was  literally  crowded  by 


*Thi3  brief  will  be  found  in  exienso  in  the  History  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  by  M.  Cretineau  Joly. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.     127 

the  arrival  of  numerous  Indian  vessels  (^tones'),  freighted 
with  men,  women,  and  children,  who  loudly  called  upon 
the  good  Fathers  to  come  and  aid  them.  They  were  the 
inhabitants  of  Ciorano,  who,  as  the  Jesuits  could  not  go 
to  them,  had  come  to  seek  at  their  hands  the  exposition 
of  the  truths  of  Christianity  and  to  request  baptism. 

The  Badages  had  renewed  their  inroads  upon  the  Fish- 
ery Coast,  and  continued  to  rob  and  plunder  the  Pallawars. 
In  one  of  their  attacks  they  seized  upon  Father  Mesquita, 
whom  they  severely  wounded  with  their  lances,  and  then, 
before  his  eyes,  cruelly  massacred  many  of  the  Christians, 
who  bore  their  fate  with  a  holy  and  courageous  resigna- 
tion, begging  a  last  blessing  from  their  apostle,  who  had 
become  the  slave  of  their  Infidel  persecutors. 

The  island  of  Moro*  had  been  conquered  by  the  King 
of  Gilolo,  who  would  not  hear  of  the  introduction  of  the 
Christian  religion.  The  Moreans,  lacking  moral  courage, 
had  abandoned  their  faith,  for  their  missionary  was  no 
longer  among  them  to  preserve  them,  by  his  exhortations 
and  encouraging  example  and  precepts,  from  the  misery  of 
falling  into  apostasy.  Father  Beira  had  gone  to  Am- 
boyna  tob  solicit  succor  from  the  Portuguese.  This  was 
speedily  granted.  The  Portuguese  hastened  to  their  as- 
sistance, and  reconquered  the  island  from  the  King  of 
Gilolo,  whom  they  took  prisoner,  and  were  about  to  pun- 
ish the  Moreans  for  their  cowardly  submission  to  the  In- 
fidel Prince.  Beira  at  once  interposed,  declaring  him- 
self their  protector  and  Father,  saved  them  from  the 
chastisement  with  which  they  were  threatened,  and,  finally, 
succeeded  in  reconciling  them  to  Grod,  by  repentance. 
Father  Alfonso  de  Castro  had  preached  the  Gospel  most 
successfully  during  nine  years  in  the  Moluccas  ;  he  had 
even  succeeded  in  converting  the  King  of  Bachian  and 


*  One  of  the  Moluccas. 
13 


128  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

all  his  subjects  ;  but  the  Saracens,  infuriated  at  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  surrounding  countries, 
carried  off  the  missionary,  kept  him  in  close  confinement, 
and,  finally,  toward  the  end  of  January,  1558,  by  order  of 
the  Sultan,  put  him  to  death,  at  Ires,  near  Ternat. 

In  the  island  of  Celebes,  where  the  missionaries  had 
been  so  much  desired,  the  King  and  fifteen  hundred  of 
his  subjects  were  baptized  by  Father  Magalanes.  The 
Kins  of  Siao,  to  the  north  of  Celebes,  desired  to  become 
acquainted  with  a  religion  which  had  produced  such  apos- 
tles, and  yielding  to  its  influences,  he  and  his  subjects 
were  converted.  In  like  manner  the  islands  of  Sonda  had 
yielded  to  the  gentle  teachings  of  the  Jesuits ;  the  King 
of  Banca  also  embraced  the  Christian  faith,  and  his  peo- 
ple soon  followed  his  example.  In  the  Calamines,  near 
the  Philippines,  the  people  of  Divaran,  to  the  number  of 
one  thousand  two  hundred  and  seven,  at  their  own  solicita- 
tion, received  the  grace  of  baptism. 

Several  Fathers  of  the  society  had  gone  to  Japan,  there 
to  second  the  labors  of  Cosmas  de  Torrez,  and  Juan  Fer- 
nandez. A  furious  war  raged  between  the  sovereigns  of 
that  vast  empire.  The  Bonzes,  irritated  at  the  access  of 
the  missionaries,  charged  them  with  being  the  cause  of  the 
war,  by  perpetuating  discord  and  secretly  influencing  the 
minds  of  the  people,  that,  finally,  they  might  work  the 
entire  ruin  of  the  empire.  The  same  unscrupulous  Pagans 
charged  the  Jesuits  with  the  perpetration  of  crimes  of 
which  themselves  alone  were  capable.  The  tactics  of  the 
evil  one  were  ever  the  same  ;  those  which  he  had  suggested 
to  the  heretics  in  Europe  were,  in  like  manner,  employed 
by  the  base  minds  and  hearts  of  the  Pagans  of  Japan. 

The  town  of  Amanguchi  had  been  twice  captured  and 
delivered  to  the  flames;  Fucheo  was  inundated  with  blood; 
the  kingdom  of  Firando  was  distracted  and  torn  asunder 
by  turbulent  factions  and  party  strifes,  while  insurrection 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  129 

momentarily  threatened  to  break  out  in  Fucata.  The 
Bonzes,  every-where  else  baffled  in  their  calumnious  efforts, 
■which  only  redounded  to  their  own  disgrace,  were  more 
successful  at  Fucata,  where  they  succeeded  in  exciting  the 
people  against  the  Jesuits,  by  declaring  that  all  the  trouble 
and  desolation  which  had  spread  over  their  country  was 
caused  entirely  by  the  Christian  Bonzes^  The  infuriated 
populace  rushed  upon  the  churches  and  the  houses  of  the 
missionaries,  setting  them  on  fire.  This  occurred  about 
the  month  of  April,  1559.  Fathers  Villela  and  Baltha- 
zar Gago  were  happily  rescued  from  the  violence  of  the 
infatuated  mob,  as  were,  in  like  manner,  the  brothers  of  the 
Order. 

The  inhabitants  of  Mount  Jesan  having  repeatedly  ex- 
pressed their  desire  that  some  of  the  Christian  Bonzes 
should  come  among  them,  Fathers  A^illela  and  Gago  had 
gone  on  this  mission.  After  shaving  off  their  beards,  they 
muffled  themselves  up  in  the  costume  of  the  Bonzes^  and 
took  passage  on  board  a  vessel  bound  for  Sacai;  but  even 
under  this  disguise  they  were  recognized.  When  out  at 
sea  they  encountered  a  dead  calm,  which  the  sailors  at- 
tributed to  the  presence  of  the  European  Bonzes^  which, 
they  averred,  had  irritated  the  gods  of  Japan,  thus  bring- 
ing upon  them  this  annoying  delay,  and  declared  that 
nothing  short  of  throwing  them  overboard  would  appease 
their  anger.  The  venerable  apostles  were  insulted,  buff- 
eted, and  maltreated  in  every  imaginable  manner ;  but 
God,  ever  watchful  over  those  whose  hearts  are  turned 
toward  him,  prevented  the  cruel  threats  from  being  carried 
into  execution.  The  calm  ceased,  and  a  favorable  breeze 
wafted  the  vessel  safely  to  the  desired  port.  Immediately 
on  landing,  the  Fathers  directed  their  steps  toward  Mount 
Jesan,  where  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  plant  the  seed  of 
the  Gospel  in  order  to  insure  abundant  fruits.  Indeed, 
they  were  soon  enabled  to  extend  the  field  of  their  labors, 


130  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

until,  on  the  30th  November,  1559,  they  reached  Meaco. 
On  arriving  at  that  place,  Father  Yillela  introduced  him- 
self to  the  Cuho-Sama,  and  requested  permission  to  an- 
nounce publicly,  to  both  young  and  old,  the  doctrine  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  only  Sovereign  Lord  of  Heaven  and 
Earth.  His  request  was  granted,  and,  after  the  example  of 
the  Holy  Apostle  of  the  East,  crucifix  in  hand,  he  went 
from  street  to  street,  preaching  the  doctrine  of  the  one 
true  and  living  God.  The  people  followed  him  in  crowds, 
seeking  with  avidity,  but  with  respectful  bearing,  to  catch 
the  words  of  truth  that  fell  from  him,  listening  to  his  in- 
structions and  admonitions  with  a  docility  which  was  truly 
consoling  and  encouraging.  This  annoyed  the  Bonzes, 
who  offered  the  greatest  indignities  to  the  missionary  ;  but 
a  distinguished  nobleman  of  the  court,  who  enjoyed  the 
special  friendship  of  the  Emperor,  took  the  Jesuits  under 
his  protection,  representing  their  merits  in  the  most  favor- 
able manner  to  the  Emperor.  The  Prince  having  ex- 
pressed a  desire  for  an  interview,  the  good  Father,  on 
being  informed  of  the  fact,  at  once  proceeded  to  the  palace. 
Father  Villela  was,  in  manner,  simple  and  unassuming, 
of  an  extremely  gentle  and  amiable  disposition,  and  his 
interview  produced  most  satisfactory  results.  The  Em- 
peror, who  was  much  taken  with  him,  and  greatly  pleased 
with  his  conversation  and  manners,  issued  a  decree  com- 
manding all  his  subjects  to  respect  the  Christian  Father,  who 
had  come  so  great  a  distance  in  order  to  impart  to  them  the 
truths  of  Christianity.  Thus  supported  and  encouraged, 
the  missionaries  prosecuted  their  labors  with  renewed 
zeal  and  in  entire  safety.  Teaching  as  much  by  example 
as  by  precept,  they  went  about  incessantly  among  the 
poop,  whose  necessities  they  relieved,  as  well  as  instructing 
the  young  and  visiting  the  sick,  for  whom  they  erected  an 
hospital,  wherein  they  nursed  them  bodily  and  consoled 
them  spiritually,  with  a  zeal  and  devotion  unknown  to  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.    131 

Japanese,  and  which  excited  universal  admiration.  Many 
of  the  Bonzes  soiiiiht  to  learn  soraethiriii;  about  a  reliuion 
which  hud  brought  forth  so  many  virtues,  and  gladly 
embraced  it,  the  people  following  their  example.  Father 
Villela  was  soon  in  a  position  to  found  a  house  of  the 
society  at  Meaco.  He  afterward  preached  the  Word  of  God 
in  the  town  of  Sacai,  with  wonderful  success. 

The  King  of  Omura  was  also  converted  to  Christian- 
ity  in  the  course  of  the  same  year,  through  the  preaching 
of  Father  Torrez.  So  highly  did  this  Prince  esteem  and 
admire  the  Christian  religion,  that  he  publicly  inculcated 
it  among  his  officers,  in  the  midst  of  the  camps,  to  which 
the  existing  strifes  and  war  had  called  him.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  King  of  Arima,  and  the  greater  portion  of  his 
subjects,  embraced  Christianity,  under  the  teaching  of 
Brother  Louis  Almeida.  It  was  soon  found  necessary  to 
obtain  reinforcements  of  missionaries,  each  of  the  Fathers 
beffoino;  the  Provincial  to  send  fresh  laborers  into  a 
vineyard  which  promised  such  a  rich  and  abundant 
harvest. 

The  missions  in  the  Brazils  were  equally  productive, 
and  the  Holy  See  had  created  a  bishopric  there,  besides 
which,  the  number  of  missionaries  had  been  increased, 
and  all  augured  well  for  the  future  of  Christianity  in 
that  beautiful  country.  But,  unfortunately,  in  Africa  the 
case  was  widely  different.  Andrew  Oviedo  had  essayed 
to  penetrate  into  Ethiopia.  The  Emperor  Claudius,  named 
also  the  Priest  John,  through  fear  of  irritating  his  sub- 
jects, prohibited  him  from  preaching,  and  thus  the  mis- 
sionary was  compelled  to  proceed  to  a  greater  distance, 
in  order  to  conceal  himself  and  secretly  to  minister  to  the 
spiritual  w^ants  of  the  Catholics.  Not  long  after,  Claudius 
died,  and  the  crown  descended  to  his  brother  Adamar,  a 
cruel  Prince  and  an  inveterate  enemy  of  the  Church.  He 
was  not  long  in  discovering  the  retreat  of  the  missionary, 
13* 


132  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

whom  lie  caused  to  be  brought  before  him,  and  whom  ho 
would  have  beheaded  with  a  single  stroke  of  his  cimeterj 
had  not  the  Empress  interposed  and  begged  mercy  for 
the  apostle,  whose  life  was  thus  preserved.  The  cruel 
despot  was  content  with  ordering  him,  and  the  Father  and 
Brother  who  accompanied  him,  to  be  banished  to  a  dis- 
tant desert,  where  they  were  so  confined  and  guarded  as 
to  be  unable  to  communicate  with  any  one  outside  the 
prescribed  limits.  It  was  worse  than  mere  exile;  it  was, 
in  fact,  sequestration,  for  they  could  neither  send  nor  re- 
ceive letters.  In  consequence  of  receiving  no  communica- 
tion from,  or  intelligence  of,  their  brothers  of  Abyssinia, 
and,  being  aware  of  the  cruelty  with  which  the  Sultan,  Ad- 
amar,  persecuted  the  Christians,  the  Fathers  of  Goa  sent 
a  member  of  the  society  to  seek  information  of  them; 
but  this  missionary  was  seized,  carried  off,  and  sold  as  a 
slave  by  the  Saracens.  Father  Nunhez  Barretto,  Patri- 
arch of  Ethiopia,  died  at  Goa  on  the  22d  December, 
1561,  before  accomplishing  the  object  to  which  he  had  as- 
pired for  the  six  years  preceding  his  demise.  Andrew 
Oviedo  was  named  as  his  successor,  but  it  was  difficult,  dur- 
ing his  exile,  to  convey  to  him,  the  intelligence.  However, 
Almighty  God  was  pleased  to  permit  him  to  be  informed 
of  the  fact,  which,  when  it  did  at  length  reach  him,  was 
an  additional  affliction  to  his  heart;  for,  in  his  banishment, 
what  could  he  do — chief  pastor,  as  he  then  was — for  the 
unfortunate  flock  committed  to  his  charge,  and  for  whose 
salvation,  so  tenderly  did  he  love  his  children,  he  would 
willingly  have  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood?  It  was  an 
impossibility  for  him  to  pass  beyond  the  limits  which  had 
been  prescribed  by  his  cruel  persecutors,  who  guarded 
him  with  the  strictest  watchfulness.  But,  withal,  the  Jes- 
uit was  not  idle.  He  found  work  in  his  retirement ;  he 
made    himself   beloved   by  the    negroes    and    slaves,  and, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.    133 

profited  by  their  confidence,  to  labor  for  the  eternal  salva- 
tion of  their  immortal  souls. 

When  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  heard  of  the  martyrdom 
to  which  Father  Oviedo  was  condemned,  he  felt  that  his 
talents  and  zeal  could  be  much  more  beneficially  employed 
elsewhere,  and  he  therefore  directed  him  to  quit  the  un- 
grateful soil  of  Abyssinia  as  soon  as  possible,  and  proceed 
to  China  or  Japan.  Pius  IV  was  not  aware  of  the  depths 
of  misery  to  which  these  exiles  of  the  African  Desert  had 
been  reduced;  he  was  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  they  were 
without  necessary  food  or  clothing.  So  great  was  their 
privation  that,  in  order  to  reply  to  the  Pope's  communi- 
cation, Oviedo  was  compelled  to  tear  from  his  breviary 
the  few  strips  of  blank  paper  that  still  remained,  upon 
which  he  wrote,  in  pencil,  the  following  lines  : 

"Holy  Father,  I  know  not  of  any  means  of  flight.  The  Moham- 
medans surround  us  on  all  sides.  Not  long  ago  they  killed  one  of 
our  number,  Andrew  Gualdamez.  But,  whatever  may  be  the  trib- 
ulations which  beset  us,  I  have  a  great  desire  to  remain  on  this 
ungrateful  soil,  so  as  to  suffer,  and  perhaps  to  die,  for  Jesus  Christ." 

"While  Ethiopia  thus  massacred  the  Jesuits,  or  sub- 
jected them  to  hardships  and  cruelties  worse  than  death 
itself,  CafFraria  proclaimed  their  merits,  and  loudly  called 
for  their  spiritual  aid,  thus  affording  ample  hopes  of  yield- 
ing abundant  results  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  God. 

Gamba,  King  of  Tonga,  finding,  on  the  return  of  his 
son,  after  a  long  absence,  that  he  had  much  improved,  in- 
quired the  cause,  and  was  not  long  in  discovering  that 
the  total  change  that  had  taken  place  in  him  was  attrib- 
utable to  his  having  become  a  Christian.  He  had  gone 
to  Mozambique,  where  he  met  men  who  were  celebrated 
for  their  srreat  learnino;  and  ana;elic  virtues.  He  there 
learned    that   wherever    these    men    made    their    religion 


134  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

known,  and  caused  it  to  be  practised,  the  people  became 
mild  and  docile,  and  were  easily  governed  ;  rulers  became 
good,  and  made  their  subjects  happier  than  before.  He 
had  desired  to  become  acquainted  with  a  religion  that  led 
to  such  results;  he  admired  it,  and  earnestly  sought  to 
be  a  member  of  it;  had  received  baptism  at  his  own  solicit- 
ation, and  had  become  a  Christian  ! 

Gamba,  who  was  much  struck  with  the  details  related 
by  his  son,  dispatched  an  ambassador  to  Goa,  to  solicit 
the  services  of  some  Jesuit  Fathers  for  his  states.  The 
result  was  that  Fathers  Gonsalvo  Silveira,  Andrew  Fer- 
nandez, and  Acosta  were  accorded  to  him,  and  they  arrived 
at  their  destination  in  the  month  of  March,  1560,  where 
they  were  received  and  welcomed  by  the  King  with  every 
mark  of  respect  and  joy.  They  immediately  applied 
themselves  to  their  labors,  and  preached  with  extraordi- 
nary eifect  and  such  gratifying  results  that  Father  Silveira 
requested  to  be  allowed  to  extend  the  field  of  his  labors. 
Leaving  Father  Fernandez  and  Acosta  with  the  Mosaran- 
ges,  he  took  with  him  one  of  the  brothers  and  set  out  for 
Monomotapa,  where  he  arrived  in  the  month  of  December, 
1560.  He  forthwith  presented  himself  to  the  King,  to 
whom  he  exhibited  a  statue  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and 
begged  him  to  accept  of  it  as  an  humble  gift  to  his  31ajesty. 
Twenty-five  days  after  this  interview,  the  King  and  Queen, 
and  three  hundred  of  the  principal  personages  of  the 
state,  embraced  the  faith,  receiving,  at  their  own  solicita- 
tion, the  sacrament  of  baptism.  Father  Silveira  recog- 
nized another  illustration  of  the  goodness  and  power  of 
the  intercession  of  the  ever-blessed  Mother  of  God  in  this 
ready  submission  of  princes  and  nobles  to  the  law  of  the 
Gospel. 

The  Saracens,  exasperated  at  this  result,  sought  an 
audience  of  the  King,  and  endeavored  to  persuade  him 
that  it  was  not  of  his  own  free  will  that  he  had  asked  for 


GENERALSHIP   OP    FATHER    JAMES    LAYNEZ.  135 

baptism,  but  through  the  influence  of  witchcraft,  which  the 
missionaries  had  employed  to  blind  and  deceive  him.  The 
King  became  uneasy,  and  sought  to  explain  to  himself 
the  influence  which  had  been  exercised  by  Father  Silveira 
over  him  and  all  those  who  had  become  Christians ;  and, 
being  unable  to  do  so,  he  became  mistrustful,  and  per- 
mitted himself 'to  be  so  influenced  by  the  Mussulmans  as 
to  give  them  permission  to  do  as  they  saw  fit  with  the 
European  magicians,  as  they  designated  the  Jesuits.  The 
good  Father  was  warn'ed  that  the  Infidels  threatened  his 
life  and  intended  to  attack  him  suddenly  during  the  night. 
He  was  not  in  the  least  disconcerted,  and  made  no  attempt 
to  avert  the  fate  with  which  he  was  menaced  ;  but,  calmly 
putting  on  his  alb,  he  lighted  two  wax  tapers,  placed  his 
crucifix  in  the  midst,  and,  kneeling  down  in  holy  contem- 
plation and  prayer,  prepared  to  meet  his  God.  Midnight 
arrived,  and  not  hearing  his  enemies  approach,  he  quitted 
his  dwelling,  desiring  to  encounter  them  ;  but  they  were 
nowhere  to  be  seen.  He  returned  to  his  couch  and  was 
soon  in  a  peaceful  slumber.  He  had  not  long  remained 
thus  when  he  was  awakened  by  the  fanatical  Mussul- 
mans, who,  at  the  command  of  their  chief,  Macruma,  placed 
a  cord  around  the  neck  of  their  victim,  strangled  him,  and, 
attaching  a  stone  to  the  cord,  threw  the  body  of  the  mar- 
tyr into  the  river  Mosengessem.  This  occurred  on  the 
16th  March,  1561,  on  which  day  fifty  of  the  new  converts 
were  subjected  to  a  similar  death. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  King  repented  of  his  cul- 
pable weakness,  and,  desiring  to  avenge  Father  Silveira's 
death,  caused  a  general  massacre  of  the  Saracens. 

Father  Acosta  soon  followed  the  martyr  of  Monomo- 
tapa ;  he  fell  a  victim  to  a  virulent  fever,  and  those 
whom  he  had  converted  to  the  true  faith  were  deprived  of 
his  holy  consolation  and  encouragement,  being  left  solely 
dependent  on  the  good  Father  Fernandez,  who  had  hap- 


136  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

pily  escaped  the  disease.  Unfortunately  the  King  aban- 
doned himself  to  the  indulgence  of  his  passions,  and  the 
nobles  and  people,  feeling  justified  in  following  the  ex- 
ample thus  shown  them,  threw  off  the  restraint  which  had 
kept  them  in  the  right  path,  and  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
teachings  of  Father  Fernandez,  whose  exhortations  and 
counsel  they  henceforth  disregarded.  The  missionary, 
unwillins;  to  be  a  witness  of  the  disorders  and  evils  which 
he  could  not  prevent,  returned  to  the  Indies. 

At  this  time  the  Sultan  of  Ang(^a  gladly  received  four 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  society,  whose  services  he  had  re- 
quested, and  who  were  introduced  to  him  by  the  Portu- 
guese ambassador,  Paul  Diaz  de  Novaez.  The  Prince 
wished  Francis  de  Govea,  Superior  of  the  mission,  to  un- 
dertake the  education  of  his  son,  to  which,  for  the  cause 
of  Christianity,  the  Jesuit  Father  consented. 

The  most  beneficial  results  were  being  produced  by  this 
mission,  when  fresh  victories,  gained  by  the  Portuguese 
along  the  adjacent  coasts,  caused  misgivings  to  arise  iu 
the  mind  of  the  sovereign ;  and  the  Mussulmans,  taking 
advantage  of  this  circumstance,  persuaded  the  King  that 
the  missionaries  were  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  se- 
cret agents  of  the  King  of  Portugal,  and  that  erelong  the 
Kingdom  of  Angola  would  be  reduced  to  the  condition  ot 
a  mere  Portuguese  colony.  Nothing  more  was  needed  to 
bring  upon  the  Jesuits  renewed  persecutions,  and  Paul 
Diaz,  the  ambassador,  advised  their  immediate  departure 
for  some  other  field  of  labor. 

"  The  whole  African  race,"  added  he,  "  are  not  equally 
suspicious.  Your  ministry  here  is  doomed  henceforth  to 
sterility.  You  will  reap  more  abundant  fruits  in  the 
other  states  along  the  coast." 

"  Scnor,'^  replied  Father  Govea,  "  if  the  soldier,  with 
the  sole  view  of  winning  the  favor  of  his  superiors,  does 
not  hesitate  in  his  obedience,  still  less  can  we,  Christians, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JAMES  LAYNEZ.    137 

priests,  and  religious,  in  our  submission  to  God  and  to 
those  whom  He  has  placed  over  us.  Our  superiors  have 
assigned  us  this  post,  and  here  we  will  remain,  at  the 
peril  of  our  lives,  so  long  as  we  shall  not  have  received 
orders  to  leave  it." 

And  these  heroic  ministers  continued  their  labors 
among  this  barbarous  people,  from  whom  they  received 
the  most  disgraceful  treatment,  suffering  all  kinds  of  pri- 
vations and  trials;  but  never  for  a  moment  did  their  cour- 
age fail  them.  Their  meekness  wai5  unalterable ;  their 
patience  proof  against  every  attack. 

The  Jesuits  in  Egypt  were  not  much  more  successful. 
The  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  desirous  of  uniting  the 
Copts  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  had  requested  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff,  in  1560,  to  send  him  missionaries  whose 
learning  might  be  used  in  bringing  home  conviction  to 
the  minds  of  the  people.  The  Pope  applied  to  Father 
Laynez,  who  had  selected  Christopher  Kodriguez  and 
John  Baptist  Elian  for  this  mission.  Pius  IV  conferred 
upon  them  the  title  and  vested  in  them  the  powers  of 
Apostolic  Legates,  in  which  capacity  they  arrived  at 
Memphis,  the  residence  of  the  Patriarch,  in  the  month 
of  November,  1561.  They  immediately  entered  into  con- 
ference with  the  most  learned  among  the  Copts,  who, 
foreseeing  their  defeat,  excited  the  people  to  revolt 
against  the  envoys  of  the  Holy  See.  They  were  attacked 
and  insulted  in  the  public  streets.  The  Jews  joined  in 
the  popular  indignation,  and  the  two  Jesuits,  having  only 
time  to  redeem  some  Christian  captives,  whom  they  con- 
ducted in  safety  on  board  a  vessel,  returned  to  Rome. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  had  ever  before  its  eyes  the  last 
wishes  and  prayers  of  the  illustrious  Francis  Xavier  in 
regard  to  the  Chinese  Empire.  It  was  its  ardent  desire, 
at  any  cost,  to  carry  into  that  region  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel    of   Jesus    Christ,  and  its   hope    of   success   was 


138  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

founded  upon  its  confidence  in  the  protection  of  the 
great  Apostle  of  the  East. 

In  the  year  1556,  Father  Nunhez  succeeded  in  enter- 
ing Canton,  where  he  explained  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  the  Mandarins,  and  thus  paved  the  way  for 
future  missions. 

In  1563,  the  King  of  Portugal,  carrying  out  the  ex- 
pressed desire  and  earnest  prayer  of  Francis  Xavier,  sent 
an  ambassador  with  costly  presents  to  the  Emperor  of 
China.  Three  Jesuits  formed  part  of  the  embassy,  but 
they  were  not  permitted  to  remain  after  the  departure  of 
the  embassador  himself,  much  less  to  teach  a  new  religion. 
Yet,  nothing  discouraged,  they  were  entirely  resigned  to 
the  trials  that  beset  them  on  every  side ;  they  waited 
patiently,  under  the  firm  conviction  that  eventually  they 
would  succeed,  and  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  resist 
their  zeal  and  perseverance. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  health  of  Father  Laynez,  Gen- 
eral of  the  society,  had  given  way,  exhausted,  as  he  was, 
by  excessive  labor.  His  mind  alone  retained  its  full  vigor. 
He  saw,  with  a  holy  calm,  his  end  approaching.  From 
the  early  part  of  January,  1565,  he  gradually  but  visibly 
drooped,  until  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  when  he 
peacefully  expired,  with  his  last,  gentle  look  fixed  on 
Father  Francis  Borgia,  whom  he  seemed  thus  to  desig- 
nate as  his  successor. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  Father  Laynez  was  but  fifty- 
three  years  of  age.  He  left  the  society  in  the  most  pros- 
perous and  flourishing  condition,  with  every  prospect  of 
still  greater  success  in  the  future.  At  this  time  it  had 
only  been  in  existence  twenty-four  years,  and  it  numbered 
one  hundred  and  thirty  houses,  and  upward  of  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  members. 


QENERALSIIIP    OP    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  139 


(Stncnilsljij  of  SI.  |r;intis  §0rgia, 

THIRD    GENERAL. 
156  5  — 1573. 

I. 

On  the  very  day  following  that*  on  which  Father  Lay- 
nez  breathed  his  last,  the  professed  members  at  Rome 
appointed  Father  Francis  Borgia  Vicar-General  during 
the  vacancy  of  the  Generalship.  At  the  same  sitting, 
the  General  Congregation  for  the  election  of  the  future 
General  was  convoked  for  the  21st  of  June  of  the  same 
year,  1565 ;  and,  on  the  2d  of  July,  the  feast  of  the  Vis- 
itation, Francis  Borgia  was  duly  elected  and  proclaimed 
General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

He  was  fifty  years  of  age,  but  the  austerities  of  hia 
life,  and  his  arduous  labors,  gave  him  the  appearance  of 
being  much  older.  Exhausted  by  his  life  of  incessant 
labor,  he  was  feeble  in  body,  but  strong  in  mind  and 
heart.  On  hearing  the  decree  proclaiming  him  General, 
he  was  seen  to  change  countenance  ;  his  eyes  overflowed 
WMth  tears,  and  the  announcement  appeared  to  produce 
upon  him  a  sort  of  stupefaction.  A  few  hours  afterward, 
on  perceiving  the  Fathers  preparing  to  proceed  to  the 
Vatican,  to  announce  their  decision  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontifi",  raising  his  eyes  toward  heaven,  with  an  inspired 
and  sweet  expression,  he  exclaimed  : 

"  I  l\ad  always  desired  the  Cross,  but  never  did  I  an- 
ticipate a  cross  so  heavy  as  this  !  " 
14 


110  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

On  hearing  of  the  choice  .the  society  had  made,  the 
Pope  said  to  the  Fathers,  who  conveyed  the  intelligence 
to  him  : 

"  The  Congregation  could  have  done  nothing  more 
useful  for  the  good  of  the  Church,  more  advantageous 
for  your  Institution,  or  more  pleasing  to  the  Apostolic 
See.  I  ^viil,  on  every  occasion  that  oflers,  prove  to  you 
how  much  I  am  pleased  by  the  admirable  selection  you 
have  made." 

These  words  of  the  Holy  Father  were  truly  encourag- 
ing to  the  humble  General.  He  accepted  this  heavy 
cross,  and  it  was  soon  apparent  that  Almighty  God  was 
with  him,  and  gave  him  strength  and  courage  to  bear  it. 

The  Cardinal- Archbishop  of  Augsburg  was  overjoyed 
on  hearing  of  the  election  of  Father  Borgia,  and  ordered 
a  Te  Deum  to  be  chanted  in  all  the  churches  in  his 
diocese,  in  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  this  great 
blessing.  The  sovereigns  united  in  this  general  thanks- 
giving and  rejoicing,  and  Cardinal  Hosius  thus  wrote  to 
the  newly-elected  General  : 

"I  thank  God  for  having  thus  provided  for  the  wants,  not  only 
of  this  holy  society,  but  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church,  by  the 
selection  of  one  who  is  so  distinguished  by  the  integrity  of  his 
life,  and  by  his  gravity  and  prudence;  of  one  whose  solicitude  and 
diligence  will  provide  for  all  the  Churches,  in  seeing  that  they  are 
always  furnished  with  preachers  of  the  Divine  Word,  dist?in- 
guished  among  all  others,  not  only  by  the  holiness  of  their  lives, 
but  by  their  profound  leai-ning.  As  my  diocese  appears  more 
iirgently  in  need  of  such  than  all  the  others,  it  is  one  of  my  most 
pressing  duties  to  offer  my  solicitations  to  your  Reverence,  and  to 
congratulate  myself  upon  this;  for  I  have  every  confidence  that 
tiie  society  will  take  care  that  neither  the  other  Churches  nor  my 
own  shall  be  without  faithful  laborers  to  work  in  the  vineyard  of 
the  Lord." 

On  the  9th  of  December,  1565,  Pius  IV  breathed  his 
last  in  the  arms  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  his  nephew,  and 


GENERALSHIP   OF    ST.  FRANCIS    BORGIA.  141 

assisted  in  his  last  moments  by  St.  Philip  Neri.  He  was 
succeeded,  on  the  7tli  of  January  followinfi;,  by  Cardinal 
Ghislieri,  a  Dominican,  under  the  name  of  Pius  V. 

The  adversaries  of  the  society  were  elated,  and  rejoiced 
at  this  election,  in  which  they  saw  a  presaoje  of  their  tri- 
umph, and  of  the  final  destruction  of  the  Order.  They 
had  long  sought  to  excite  a  rivalry  between  the  Domini- 
cans and  Jesuits.  They  believed  that  they  had  suc- 
ceeded, and  they  regarded  the  elevation  of  a  son  of  St. 
Dominic  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  as  a  death-blow  to 
the  children  of  St.  Ignatius.  They  forgot  that  what 
had  made  the  holy  religious  Ghislieri  a  Cardinal  was 
precisely  that  which  rendered  the  Jesuits  so  formidable. 
It  was  his  austere  and  holy  life,  his  brilliant  talents,  his 
zeal  for  the  reformation  of  the  clergy  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  faith,  that  had  placed  him  in  the  elevated 
position  he  occupied.  But  passion  and  prejudice  are  ever 
blind,  and  reason  not.  Even  the  friends  and  admirers 
of  the  society  were  alarmed  at  this  election,  when  they 
called  to  mind  the  persecutions  inaugurated  against  it  by 
the  Dominican  Melchior  Cano.  Both  friends  and  foes 
awaited,  in  breathless  anxiety,  their  defeat  or  their  tri- 
umph. 

Pius  V  was  not  ignorant  of  the  position  of  affairs.  He 
knew  that  the  report  had  been  circulated  that  he  was 
about  to  destroy — to  annihilate — a  society  which  his  pre- 
decessors, it  was  said,  had  favored  to  the  prejudice  of 
other  orders. 

Immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremonial  of 
his  exaltation,  the  new  Pope,  on  his  way  to  the  Basilica 
of  St.  John  Lateran,  surrounded  by  all  the  pomp  and 
splendor  usually  displayed  on  such  occasions,  himself 
seated  upon  a  throne,  surrounded  by  the  cardinals,  or- 
dered the  procession  to  halt  directly  in  front  of  the  house 
of  the  Jesuits.     This  was  a  violation   of  the  accustomed 


142  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

practice  at  such  a  ceremonial — an  infringement  of  a  cus- 
tom which  was  regulated  by  law  and  long  usage.  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  proceeding  unheard  of  in  the  history  of 
the  Holy  See.  The  grand,  the  majestic  procession  halted 
in  its  solemn  march,  and  the  immense  multitude,  which 
filled  the  streets  and  squares  through  which  it  was  to 
pass,  were  amazed  at  this  deviation,  and  asked  each  other 
what  could  be  the  cause  of  this  incident,  unparalleled  in 
the  annals  of  the  Eternal  City.  The  Piazza  del  Gesii 
was  crowded  with  spectators.  The  Pope  desires  to  speak 
with  Don  Francis  de  Borgia,  and  the  General  of  the  so- 
ciety immediately  makes  his  appearance  in  front  of  the 
portable  throne.  The  Sovereign  Pontifl'  receives  him  with 
marked  respect,  and  having  alFectionately  embraced  him, 
speaks  in  an  audible  voice  of  the  services  rendered  to 
the  Church  throughout  the  world  by  the  children  of  St. 
Ignatius,  and  concludes  by  saying  that  he  would  be  ever 
anxious  and  ready  to  encourage  their  holy  undertakings, 
and  that  he  relies  on  their  persevering  in  their  merito- 
rious labors.  He  then  orders  the  procession  to  resume 
its  march. 

Both  the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  society  now  saw 
what  they  had  to  expect.  The  character  of  the  Pope  was 
well  known.  His  will,  which  was  ever  inclined  to  good, 
was  inflexible.  Human  considerations  had  no  influence 
upon  him,  except  so  far  as  they  might  tend  to  the  end 
he  had  in  view — the  greater  glory  of  God,  and  the  good 
of  the  Church.  He  had  seen  the  laborious  efi'orts  of  the 
Jesuits;  he  had  formed  a  great  opinion  of  them,  and,  in 
the  best  interests  of  Catholicity,  he  sought  to  give  them 
all  the  support  in  his  power,  and  hence  he  openly  de- 
clared himself  their  friend,  benefactor,  and  protector. 
He  soon  gave  them  a  public  proof  of  his  confidence,  by 
requesting  the  General  to  send  him  a  preacher  qualified, 
by  his  learning  and  holiness  of  life,  to  remind  the  Pope 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.  FRANCIS    BORGIA.  143 

and  cardinals  of  the  important  duties  devolving  upon 
them  hy  virtue  of  their  high  offices,  and  to  expatiate  upon 
the  virtues  which  their  elevation  to  so  lofty  a  position 
demanded,  not  only  for  themselves  personally,  but  for  the 
edification  of  the  world. 

For  this  all-important  and  responsible  task,  Francis 
Borgia  selected  Father  Salmeron  and  Father  Tolet.  The 
Pope  and  cardinals,  equally  enchanted  with  both  one  and 
the  other,  openly  expressed  their  entire  satisfaction.  His 
Holiness  likewise  made  choice  of  a  Jesuit  to  preach  be- 
fore the  officers  of  the  Pontifical  Palace. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1566  a  contagion,  hitherto 
unknown,  desolated  the  city  of  Rome.  The  victims  of 
this  unknown  plague  were  first  attacked  with  a  languor 
from  wdiich  they  never  recovered,  and  which  produced 
almost  instantaneous  death.  As  is  frequently  the  case, 
in  such  emergencies,  terror  paralyzed  every  one.  The 
people  shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses,  leaving  those 
who  were  stricken  with  the  fatal  disease  to  their  inevita- 
ble fate.  The  poor  were  without  food,  and  hunger  only 
added  to  the  fury  and  ravages  of  the  epidemic,  until 
the  streets,  even  to  the  very  doors  of  the  opulent,  which 
were  closed  against  the  sufl'erers,  were  strewed  with  the 
dead  bodies  of  the  unhappy  victims.  From  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  this  frightful  plague,  the  Jesuits  had  hast- 
ened to  the  assistance  of  the  people.  Accustomed,  as 
they  were,  to  brave  every  danger,  to  devote  their  lives  to 
works  of  zeal  and  Christian  charity,  they,  on  this  occasion, 
manifested  the  most  magnanimous  self-devotion  and  un- 
heard of  self-denial.  From  the  Father-General  down 
to  the  least  of  the  brothers,  all  went  forth,  and  most  hero- 
ically disputed,  step  by  step,  with  the  devouring  plague 
for  the  possession  of  its  victims.  They  visited  the  houses 
of  the  rich  and   the  great,  besffino;  assistance  and  succor 

for  the  poor  and  lowly ;    they  nursed  and  consoled   the 
14* 


144  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

sick,  or  exhorted  and  blessed  the  djinj^.  In  a  word,  they 
showed  themselves  in  this  instance,  as  they  had  ever  been 
under  similar  afflictions,  true  heroes  of  charity.  The 
Pope,  struck  with  admiration  by  such  devotion,  could 
think  of  but  one  reward  which  he  could  tender  these 
apostles  of  Christian  charity.  As  soon  as  the  plague  sub- 
sided, he  said  to  his  friend  Francis  Borgia  :  "  If  it  should 
please  Divine  Providence  again  to  visit  the  States  of  the 
Church  with  similar  calamities,  your  heroic  society  shall 
be  the  first  called  to  the  scene  of  danger.     This  I  promise 

you." 

Pius  V  was  not  only  a  great  Pope,  he  was  more;  he 
was  a  great  saint,  whom  the  Church  has  canonized.  The 
pledge  Jie  had  thus  made  to  the  society  was  alike  worthy 
of  him  and  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.*  The  Pope,  who 
had  ever  at  heart  the  reformation  of  the  clergy,  appointed 
as  apostolical  inspectors,  or  visitors,  of  the  dioceses  of  the 
Church,  four  bishops  of  eminent  virtue,  and  enjoined  the 

*  The  heretics  were  so  embarrassed  by  the  zeal  and  self-devotion  of 
the  Jesuits,  that  they  had  recourse  to  calumnies.  Doubtless  they 
knew  that  the  registry  of  the  town  of  Geneva  preserved  for  posterity 
undeniable  testimony  of  their  egotism  and  weakness.  It  was  there 
shown  that,  during  the  plague  of  1543,  "  the  ministers  of  the  Refor- 
mation came  forward  and  acknowledged  it  to  be  their  duty  to  visit 
and  console  those  infected  by  the  contagion,  but  none  of  them  having 
courage  enough  to  do  so,  they  begged  the  Council  to  pardon  their' 
weakness,  God  not  having  accorded  them  the  grace  to  witness  and 
confront  the  danger."  Ought  they  not  have  concluded,  from  this, 
that  the  Catholic  religion  was  more  pleasing  to  Almighty  God  than 
their  own,  as  He  had  accorded  so  abundantly  to  the  Jesuits  that 
grace  which  was  denied  the  Protestant  ministers  ? 

Calvin  did  not  admit  so  much  ;  he  considered  himself  better  in- 
spired in  causing  the  Town  Council  to  prohibit  him  from  the  exer 
cise  of  works  of  charity,  under  the  astounding  pretext  that  "  the 
Church  and  the  State  had  too  much  need  of  him  to  permit  him  to 
risk  his  life  in  succoring  the  victims  of  the  plague."  It  would  have 
been  difficult  to  place  a  more  exalted  estimate  upon  his  own  im- 
portance. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    ST.   FRANCIS   BORGIA.  145 

Jesuits  to  assist  and  enlighten  them  in  this  important 
undertaking.  The  holy  religious  acquitted  themselves  of 
this  mission  with  so  much  success  that  the  bishops  of 
Italy  entreated  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  provide  the  same 
means  of  reform  for  their  respective  dioceses,  with  which 
request  the  Sovereign  Pontiflf  complied  by  appointing  some 
Jesuit  Fathers  to  the  office  ;  and  scarcely  had  they  entered 
upon  their  duties,  so  delicate  and  so  difficult,  when  the 
prelates  found  cause  to  congratulate  themselves  on  the 
step  they  had  taken.  They  wrote  to  Rome  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  society  were  accomplishing  wonders,  making 
themselves  beloved,  revered,  and  blessed  as  so  many 
heavenly  messengers. 

The  army  and  navy  were  without  regular  chaplains. 
In  time  of  war,  some  priests,  either  regular  or  secular, 
had  volunteered  their  services,  but  there  was  no  provision 
securing  to  these  two  branches  of  the  public  service  regu- 
lar spiritual  assistance.  By  direction  of  the  Pope,  the 
duty  of  providing  for  this  long-felt  want  devolved  upon 
the  society.  In  fact,  the  implicit  confidence  which  His 
Holiness  had  in  the  virtues,  prudence,  talents,  and  zeal 
of  the  children  of  St.  Ignatius  was  so  manifest  on  every 
occasion  that  it  confounded  their  enemies,  though  it  did 
not  discourage  them.  They  were  ever  secretly  at  work, 
hoping  for  better  times,  whereas  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
relying  upon  the  Divine  promise  made  to  its  holy  founder 
in  the  Church  of  La  Storta,  knew  that  it  had  nothing  to 
expect  but  the  cross  ;  it  knew  also  that  its  Divine  Mas- 
ter would  "  befriend  it."  The  society  was  then  aware 
that  it  would  always  have  enemies  and  persecutions,  but 
was  confident  of  triumphing  over  them  in  the  end,  often 
so  fully  as  to  conquer  their  love,  even  to  the  point  of  see- 
ino-  them  become  its  stanchest  defenders  and  volunteers 
in  its  ranks. 


146  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

II. 

The  Moors  of  Granada  had  revolted  against  Philip  II, 
of  Spain.  Mohammedan  at  heart,  and  Catholic  by  com- 
pulsion, they  conspired  incessantly  against  the  sovereign 
of  a  country  which  their  fathers  had  conquered,  and  from 
which  they  desired  to  exterminate  every  Christian. 

The  Jesuits,  established  at  Alrezin  since  the  year  1559, 
had  devoted  themselves  to  the  conversion  of  this  race, 
and  had  already  commenced  to  reap  some  of  the  fruits 
of  their  labors,  when  a  fresh  insurrection  compelled  them 
to  abandon  their  homes  and  seek  refuge  in  the  city  of 
Granada,  where  they  resumed  their  preaching  and  labors 
for  the  conversion  of  the  Mussulmans.  Their  influence 
was  soon  apparent.  They  succeeded  in  making  many  con- 
verts, and  several  of  these  Arabian  neophytes,  to  whom 
riches  were  more  precious  than  life  itself,  presented  them- 
selves to  the  Fathers,  at  whose  feet  they  deposited  their 
ill-gotten  wealth,  praying  them  to  restore  it  to  its  right- 
ful owners. 

In  the  same  year,  the  government,  dissatisfied  at  the 
state  of  the  public  mind,  and  fearing  an  outbreak  among 
the  people,  thought,  by  adopting  stringent  measures,  to 
avert  such  a  calamity.  Accordingly,  a  decree  was  issued 
compelling  the  Moors  to  destroy  their  baths,  to  discon- 
tinue the  use  of  the  Arabian  language,  and  directing 
the  women  to  adopt  the  Spanish  costume.  Nothing  more 
was  necessary  to  cause  the  breaking  out  of  the  appre- 
hended revolt.  The  Moors  assembled  in  the  mountains, 
and  armed  themselves  against  the  city,  which  they  sud- 
denly attacked,  to  the  cry  of  "  Liberty  and  Mohammed  !  " 
The  Jesuits  had  made  many  sincere  converts  among  them, 
and  hence  they  would  be  sought  for  as  their  first  victims. 
They  attacked  their  peaceful  dwelling  with  blasphemous  de- 
nunciations, tore  down  and  sacrilegiously  trampled  under 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  147 

foot  the  cross  which  surmounted  it,  and  were  about  to 
raze  it  to  the  ground,  when  the  Spaniards  hastened  to 
the  assistance  of  the  beloved  Fathers,  and  the  Moors,  who 
were  most  galhintly  repulsed,  abandoned  the  city,  spread- 
ing themselves  throughout  the  neighboring  towns,  pro- 
faning the  churches,  pillaging  the  monasteries,  sacrificing 
to  their  brutal  fury  priests  and  religious,  and  at  last  re- 
treated into  the  mountain  passes  of  Alpuxara. 

Philip  II,  fearing  an  invasion  by  the  African  Moors, 
who  had  threatened  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  those 
of  Spain,  sent  against  them  Don  Juan  of  Austria.  Don 
Louis  de  Kequesens,  Admiral  of  Castile,  commanded  the 
fleet  for  the  defense  of  the  coast.  The  Jesuits  accompa- 
nied them,  and  took  upon  themselves  the  spiritual  care 
of  the  two  squadrons.  Father  Christopher  Rodriguez, 
who  was  on  that  which  guarded  the  coast,  hearing  that 
there  were  more  than  seven  hundred  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers  in  the  hospitals  of  Malaga,  hastened,  in  company 
of  some  other  Fathers,  to  afford  them  spiritual  consolation, 
and  to  aid  them  in  making  their  peace  with  God,  that  they 
might  die  the  death  of  good  Christians.  The  galleys  were 
filled  with  condemned  prisoners,  whose  term  of  punish- 
ment had  expired,  but  who,  through  the  gross  and  cul- 
pable neglect  of  the  authorities,  had  been  unable  to  ob- 
tain their  liberty.  Father  Christopher,  on  visiting  the 
galleys,  hearing  of  this  hardship,  could  not  rest  until  he 
had  the  matter  investigated  and  the  evil  remedied.  With- 
out money  it  is  often  impossible  to  effect  the  cure  of  cer- 
tain evils;  it  was  the  case  here.  The  Jesuits  went  about 
begging  alms  for  the  cause,  and  succeeded  in  collecting 
sufficient  funds.  The  unfortunate  prisoners  were  set  at 
liberty,  and  departed,  heaping  benedictions  on  the  heads 
of  the  holy  missionaries,  whom  they  called,  not  only  their 
Fathers,  but  their  saviors. 

At  length  the  Moors,  defeated  by  the  royal  arms,  were 


148  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

banished  from  the  kingdom  of  Granada,  and  were  dis' 
geminated  throughout  the  provinces  which  had  been  as- 
signed them  by  the  royal  authority.  Cursed  by  the 
Spaniards,  they  lived  isolated  lives,  groaning  under  the 
greatest  misery,  when  a  contagion,  which  had  made  fatal 
ravages  throughout  Europe,  found  its  way  into  Spain,  and 
the  Moors  became  its  first  victims.  The  people,  feeling 
persuaded  that  it  was  the  followers  of  Mohammed  alone 
who  had  drawn  upon  them  this  formidable  scourge,  aban- 
doned them,  and  even  refused  them  all  succor.  Again 
were  the  Jesuits  in  the  midst  of  danger,  devoting  them- 
selves to  the  care  of  these  forsaken  creatures.  On  the  first 
intimation  of  this  heartless  conduct,  their  collegiate  duties 
were  suspended,  and  the  Mussulmans  were  visited,  cared  for, 
and  consoled  by  those  of  whom  they  had  been  the  avowed 
enemies  and  persecutors.  It  needed  no  consultation  among 
the  Fathers  to  give  to  the  world  this  example  of  true 
heroism  ;  it  sufficed  that  they  knew  of  the  existence  of 
the  sufi"ering  to  at  once  induce  them  to  succor  and  re- 
lieve it.  At  Salamanca,  Alcala,  and  at  Guadalaxara, 
every-where,  they  extemporized  hospitals  in  their  own 
dwellings,  and  they  were  to  be  seen  going  about  the  streets 
bearing  off  the  plague-stricken  people  on  their  shoulders, 
encouraging  them  by  gentle  words  of  hope,  and  tenderly 
placing  them  upon  the  couches  which  had  been  provided 
by  their  unexampled  charity  ;  watching  and  tending  day 
and  night  by  the  beds  of  the  sick  and  dying,  contributing 
alike  to  their  temporal  wants  and  spiritual  necessities. 
The  Spaniards,  struck  by  such  glorious  examples,  tendered 
their  assistance  to  the  Fathers  in  their  dangerous,  laborious, 
and  self-imposed  task ;  they,  too,  would  devote  themselves 
to  the  same  cause  of  charity.  Several  of  the  Jesuits  fell 
victims  to  the  disease,  but  no  sooner  had  one  been  taken 
away  to  receive  his  reward  in  heaven,  than  his  place  was 
immediately  filled.     Never  was  a  vacancy  allowed  to  re- 


GENERALSHIP   OP   ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  149 

main.  The  plague  made  such  fearful  ravages  at  Toledo, 
that  it  was  impossible  to  find  sufficient  accommodation  for 
the  numerous  victims.  These  unfortunates  were  packed 
together  in  such  a  manner,  that  the  holy  priests  were 
compelled  to  scramble  over  many  bodies  to  reach  others 
who  were  dying  ;  and,  in  order  to  hear  their  confessions, 
they  were  obliged  to  place  their  faces  close  to  the  plague - 
stricken  penitents.  On  one  occasion,  the  29th  of  April, 
1571,  Father  Juan  Martinez,  after  having  thus  assisted 
several  in  their  last  agonies,  was  observed  to  remain  mo- 
tionless, instead  of  proceeding  to  others.  The  attendants 
approached,  spoke  to  him,  but  he  made  no  answer  ;  they 
raised  him  up — he  was  dead  !  The  martyr  of  the  secret 
of  the  confessional  had  won  the  reward  of  his  zeal,  his 
heroic  self-denial,  and  devotion. 

At  Cadiz,  the  victims  were  no  sooner  attacked  by  the 
disease  than  they  died.  The  bishop,  priests,  magistrates, 
and  nobility  had  fled  precipitately,  abandoning  the  town 
and  its  unfortunate  people  to  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence. 
But  Cadiz  also  possessed  its  Jesuits,  and,  therefore,  the 
poor  were  not  left  desolate  nor  entirely  forsaken.  The 
rector  of  the  college,  Peter  Barnard,  made  an  appeal  to 
several  officers,  with  whose  concurrence  and  assistance  he 
established  a  lazaretto,  or  pest-house,  and,  by  his  power 
of  persuasion,  induced  Sebastian  Diaz,  an  eminent  physi- 
cian of  Seville,  to  extend  his  professional  services  to  the 
poor  plague-stricken  people  of  the  city.  Thus  was  timely 
assistance  rendered  to  the  unfortunate  sufferers.  Don 
Roderick  Franco,  a  priest  of  the  city,  and  Father  Diego 
de  Sotomayor,  undertook  their  spiritual,  while  Brother 
Lopez  was  charged  with  their  temporal  relief.  In  a  short 
time,  however,  the  two  missionaries,  while  in  the  zealous 
discharge  of  their  arduous  and  heaven-inspired  work,  ex- 
pired beside  the  victims  whose  sufferings  they  had  come 
to  alleviate. 


150  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

To  the  superficial  and  narrow  minds  of  the  people,  the 
influence  exercised  by  the  Jesuits  was  inexplicable  ;  but, 
had  they  taken  the  trouble  to  examine  their  past  history, 
they  could  easily  have  comprehended  that  which  appeared 
to  them  so  unaccountable  ;  they  would  have  met  on  each 
page  of  that  history  the  solution  of  the  enigma,  in  these 
two  words  :  self-denial — self-sacrifice. 

These  glorious  examples,  while  they  excited  general 
admiration,  tended  to  develop  numerous  vocations  for  the 
society.  As  soon  as  the  frightful  contagion  had  disap- 
peared, a  young  man  of  one  of  the  most  illustrious  fam- 
ilies of  Madrid,  Don  Francisco  d'Espagna,  who  had  for 
a  long  time  sought  admittance  into  the  society,  was  re- 
ceived into  the  novitiate  of  Alcala.  His  mother  had 
vainly  used  alternate  endearments  and  threats,  tears  and 
prayers,  to  dissuade  him  from  his  purpose ;  but,  finding  all 
of  no  avail,  she  made  a  formal  complaint  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Council,  Cardinal  Spinosa,  in  which 
she  accused  the  Jesuits  of  having  induced  her  son  to 
enter  the  society,  without  having  first  assured  themselves 
of  his  vocation,  and,  bursting  into  tears  in  the  presence 
of  the  Cardinal,  she  exclaimed  : 

"  It  is  not  my  son  that  they  want,  it  is  his  fortune. 
Let  them  restore  to  me  my  Francisco  but  for  four  days, 
and  I  will  undertake  to  test  his  vocation." 

The  Royal  Council,  seeing  no  objection  to  according 
this  satisfaction  to  a  mother,  sent  an  order  to  the  Fathers 
of  Alcala  to  send  the  young  novice  back  to  his  family 
for  four  days  only.  This  order  crossed  Don  Francisco 
on  his  road  to  Madrid  ;  for  the  Jesuits,  having  learned 
of  the  accusations  made  against  them,  and  the  decision 
of  the  council  thereon,  had  sent  back  the  young  novice 
before  receiving  the  official  order,  leaving  him  entirely 
free  to  speak  and  to  act  according  to  the  dictates  of  his 
conscience.      The    order    arrived  in   due  time  at  Alcala, 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  151 

and  the  suffragan  of  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  adminis- 
trator of  the  diocese,  and  a  relation  of  the  novice,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  house  of  the  society  with  a  detachment  of 
soldiers,  surrounded  the  building,  and  entering,  accom- 
panied by  some  of  his  armed  escort,  demanded,  in  his 
mother's  name,  the  novice,  Don  Francisco  d'Espagna. 

"  Senor,"  replied  the  Father  Rector,  "  we  have  sent 
him  to  Madrid,  to  show  that  we  had  no  intention  of 
keeping  him  against  his  will,  as  has  been  asserted,  and 
in  order  that  he  may  freely  reply  to  the  questions  which 
may  be  put  to  him  about  us  or  about  himself.  He  has 
gone  to  Cardinal  Spinosa." 

« 

"  This  is  an  idle  excuse  !  "  ejaculated  the  prelate  ;  "  a 
mere  subterfuge.  We  have  the  power  to  compel  you  to 
pet  at  liberty  this  young  man."  And,  without  any  more 
ado,  he  issued  an  interdict  against  the  college. 

The  report  of  this  severe  step  spread  rapidly  through- 
out the  town,  and  the  inhabitants  and  students  of  the 
University  had  recourse  to  arms  ;  their  indignation  and 
courage  were  aroused.  They  went  in  all  haste  to  the 
college,  offered  the  Jesuits  to  defend  and  protect  them, 
and  it  was  all  that  the  good  Fathers  could  do  to  appease 
the  anger  of  the  people  and  prevent  a  general  rising  in 
their  favor.  The  danger  was  imminent.  They  conjured 
them  earnestly  to  lay  down  their  arms,  for  the  mother  of 
the  novice  had  returned  to  Alcala,  and  had  gathered  to- 
gether a  faction.  At  this  juncture  the  Father  Provincial 
appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  exasperated  populace,  and 
informed  them  that  he  would  immediatel}^  order  the  re- 
turn of  the  young  d'Espagna  from  Madrid  ;  that  he  should 
be  restored  to  his  mother,  that  every  thing  should  be 
arranged,  and  that  all  should  be  enabled  to  satisfy  them- 
selves of  the  truth. 

And  so  it  was  ;  for  only  a  few  days  elapsed  before  Fran- 
cisco arrived  at  his  mother's  house,  who  did  all   in  her 
15 


152  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

power  to  prevent  him  rejoining  the  society;  but  the  young 
man  remained  steadfast  and  unalterable  in  his  resolution. 

"As  you  will,  at  all  hazards,  give  up  forever  your  mother 
and  all  your  relations,"  said  she,  "  quit  this  paternal 
roof,  which,  for  the  future,  will  but  shelter  my  despair  ! 
But  you  can  not  persuade  me  that  the  Fathers  have  not 
sought  to  induce  you  to  enter  their  society  for  the  pur- 
pose of  appropriating  your  riches  to  their  own  uses.  If 
you  wish  me  to  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  your  vocation, 
you  have  but  to  leave  me  full  control  over  your  worldly 
possessions." 

"Senora,"  replied  Francisco,  "  your  fortune  is  immense  ; 
mine  would  be  of  no  use  to  you.  I  am  no  longer  a  child, 
and  my  age  authorizes  me  to  make  use  of  that  which 
belongs  to  me.  Permit  me,  then,  to  dispose  of  it  as  I  see 
fit."  But  this  firmness  on  the  part  of  the  novice  did  not 
meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Jesuits.  Their  disinterest- 
edness had  been  called  in  question  by  a  mother,  while  under 
the  influence  of  violent  feelings  at  the  loss  of  her  son.  It 
was  all-important  that  this  false  and  unmerited  accusation 
should  be  retracted.  Although  Francisco  had  absolute 
control  of  his  large  fortune,  the  Jesuits  required  him  to 
relinquish  it  in  favor  of  his  family.  This  simple  proceed- 
in<r,  more  efficacious  than  all  the  arguments  that  could 
have  been  put  forth,  restored  perfect  peace  and  tranquillity 
to  the  mind  of  the  disconsolate  lady,  and  she  no  longer 
offered  any  opposition  to  her  son  remaining  peacefully  irj 
the  Society  of  Jesus. 

III. 

Portugal  did  not  escape  the  ravages  of  the  plague 
which  had  just  devastated  Spain,  and  with  its  first  appear- 
ance Lisbon  was  deserted.  The  citizens  and  the  poor, 
paralyzed  by  fear,  and  no  longer  able  to  provide  for  their 
children,  whose  sufferings  they  had  not  the  courage  to  wit- 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  153 

ness,  removed  them  to  a  distance  from  their  homes,  and 
there  left  them  to  the  mercy  of  Providence.     These  un- 
fortunate  innocents  would,  doubtless,   have  fallen  victims 
to  hunger  or  disease,  had  not  the  Jesuits,  ever  vigilant  in 
such  emergencies,  hastened  to  their  rescue.     Night  and 
day  they  traversed  the  city,  nursing  the  sick,  administering 
the  sacraments  to  the  death-stricken  victims,  carrying  or- 
phans and  helpless  children  in  their  arms  to  the  asylums 
prepared  for  them,  and  there  caring  for  them  with  almost 
maternal  solicitude.     All  human  aid  appeared  to  have  for- 
saken the  fair  city  of  Lisbon.     The  magistrates  had  fled, 
leaving  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  capital  in  the 
hands  of  incompetent  subordinates.      Confusion  was  at  its 
height,  and  called  loudly  for  efficient  remedies.     The  Jes- 
uits saw  the  evil,  and  applied  the  remedy.     They  consti- 
tuted themselves  the  administrators  of  the  forsaken  city, 
reestablished  order,  infused  new  courage  and  calm  into  the 
minds  of  the  inhabitants,  restored  confidence,  and  imparted 
on  every  side  consolation  and  peace.     In  the  exercise  of 
these  acts  of  Heaven-inspired  charity,  seven  professed  mem- 
bers, four  coadjutors,  and  three  scholastics  met  their  deaths. 
When   the   plague  had   subsided,  the  parents  who  had 
abandoned  their  children  had  the  happiness,  through  the 
tender  care  of  these  saviors  of  the  people,  of  again  press- 
ing them  to  their  bosoms,  and  were  at  a  loss  to  compre- 
hend how  despair  could  have  reduced  them  to  such  an 
abject  state  as  to  so  cruelly  abandon  those  who  were  so 
dear  to  them.     A  great  number  of  these  little  ones  had,  in 
the  mean  time,  become  orphans,  and  were  retained  in  the 
asylums  which  charity  had   provided  for  them,   and    the 
Jesuits  obtained,  from  the  generosity  of  the  rich,  the  funds 
required  for  their  support.      The  poor  gratefully  remem- 
bered all  their  indebtedness  to  the  heroic  self-sacrifice  of 
the  Fathers,  while    the    courtiers  were  oblivious   of   the 
obligations  which  the  royal  city  owed  to  the  society. 


154  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

We  have  seen  that  Father  da  Camara,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, refused  the  proiFered  honor  of  educating  the  young 
King,  Sebastian,  and  only  accepted  it  through  obedience, 
the  society  feeling  that  they  owed  too  much  to  the  memory 
of  John  III  to  grieve,  by  a  refusal,  the  kind  and  generous 
heart  of  his  widowed  Queen,  Catharine.  Father  Louis 
Gonzales  da  Camara,  occupying,  as  he  did,  so  high  a  po- 
sition in  the  royal  court,  well  knew  that  whatever  might 
be  displeasing  to  the  courtiers,  would  be  attributed  to  the 
influence  of  the  King's  preceptor,  and  hence  to  the  entire 
society.  Ever  since  his  arrival  at  the  palace,  he  had  en- 
deavored, notwithstanding  the  difficulties  by  which  he  was 
surrounded,  to  moderate  the  violent  temper  of  Sebastian, 
whose  intractable  character  seemed  to  present  almost  in- 
surmountable obstacles. 

Father  da  Camara  succeeded  in  gaining  the  love  and 
esteem  of  his  royal  pupil,  and  henceforth  he  was  an  ob- 
ject of  jealousy  with  the  court.  Sebastian,  disregarding  the 
Father's  judicious  advice,  showed  a  marked  preference  for 
Don  Martino  da  Camara,  his  brother,  whom  he  appointed 
Minister  of  State,  in  the  place  of  Don  Pedro  d'Alcagova, 
notwithstanding  that  the  latter  had  filled  that  office  with 
distinction  and  ability  during  the  preceding  reign.  The 
injustice  was  glaring,  and  the  courtiers  at  once  attributed 
this  act  to  the  influence  of  Father  Louis,  as  the  King's 
preceptor  was  commonly  designated,  and  accused  the  so- 
ciety of  desiring  to  rule  in  Portugal  under  the  name  of 
Sebastian.  As  to  the  absurdity  of  such  an  accusation, 
palpable  though  it  was,  none  perceived  it.  To  see  it 
needed  reflection,  and  that  is  a  quality  rarely  to  be  found 
among  courtiers,  whose  sole  occupation  is  the  pursuit  of 
their  own  aggrandizement.  They  were  blind  to  every 
thing  but  one — the  influence  of  the  Jesuit  on  the  heart 
of  the  sovereign.  A  Jesuit  was  beloved  by  Sebastian. 
He  was  his  director  and  his  confessor ;  therefore,  the  So- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    FRANCIS    BORGIA.  155 

ciety  of  Jesus  sought  to  rule  in  Portugal.  It  was  very 
desirable  that  a  union  should  be  brought  about  between 
the  young  King  and  a  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian, but  Sebastian  firmly  objected,  and  obstinately  re- 
fused to  yield  to  the  frequent  entreaties  of  those  who 
wished  to  effect  the  marriage.  The  Pope  was  appealed  to, 
and  uro-ed  to  command  Father  Louis  to  use  whatever  in- 
fluence  he  could  toward  inducing  his  pupil  to  give  his 
consent.  Father  Laynez,  in  his  turn,  wrote  to  the  King's 
preceptor,  asking  him  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  second  the 
expressed  desires  of  the  Queen  and  nobles  in  this  regard  ; 
but  Sebastian  showed  as  little  inclination  to  yield  to  his 
preceptor  as  to  his  grandmother  and  his  courtiers.  Thence- 
forth, therefore,  it  was  the  Jesuits  who  opposed  the  mar- 
riage, and  prejudice  rose  to  such  a  pitch,  that  the  Father- 
General  ordered  the  three  Jesuits  who  resided  at  the 
court  to  leave  it  without  delay.  However,  the  King  and 
Cardinal  Henrique  declared  that  they  would  not  be  de- 
prived of  their  confessors.  The  Queen  gave  up  hers,  and 
the  General,  yielding  to  the  entreaties  which  reached  him, 
consented  to  allow  the  other  two  to  remain. 

At  a  period  when  the  clergy  and  the  monastic  orders 
set  such  an  unhappy  example  of  loose  morals,  the  holy 
life  of  the  Jesuits  must,  by  its  own  force  alone,  have 
won  for  them  great  popularity.  Their  talents,  and  the 
brilliant  acquirements  which  accompanied  their  eminent 
virtues,  fascinated  both  rich  and  poor;  and  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  understand  that  they  should  become  the  objects 
of  jealousy  to  those  who,  while  not  possessing  their  quali- 
fications and  merits,  desired  to  share  their  influence.  In 
all  the  Catholic  States,  with  few  exceptions,  the  sover- 
eigns insisted  on  retaining  Jesuits  near  their  persons  for 
the  direction  of  their  consciences. 

In  France,  the  Duke  of  Anjou  declared  that  he  fre- 
quently had  recourse  to  the  wise  counsels  of  Father 
15* 


156  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Emond  Auger,  in  the  conviction  that  he  could  not  find  a 
better  or  safer  adviser,  no  matter  how  intricate  and  diffi- 
cult the  circumstances  might  be.  One  day,  two  delegates 
from  the  University  of  Paris,  Ramus  and  Galland,  ap- 
peared before  the  Lord  High  Constable  of  France,  Annas 
de  Montmorency : 

"  My  Lord,"  said  they,  "  we  have  come  to  implore  your 
Lordship,  in  the  name  of  the  faculties,  to  expel  the  Jes- 
uits from  Paris  and  from  France,  or  to  exterminate  them; 
for  they  are  the  plague  of  the  University.  It  is  im- 
possible any  longer  to  use  coercion  toward  the  pupils, 
without  receiving  for  reply  '  that  they  will  go  to  the 
Jesuits.'  " 

"  How  dare  you  make  such  a  request  of  his  Lordship?" 
exclaimed  the  Duke  de  Damville,  son  of  the  High  Con- 
stable, while  the  latter  added,  in  a  most  commanding  tone 
of  voice  : 

"  It  would  be  more  to  your  credit  and  honor  to  imi- 
tate the  Jesuits,  instead  of  brino-ino;  accusations  a";ainst 
them." 

He  was  about  to  dismiss  the  deputation,  when  the  Duke 
of  Damville,  proposing  that  the  Jesuits  should  have  an 
opportunity  of  conferring  with  their  opponents  in  pres- 
ence of  his  Lordship,  they  were  sent  for,  and  immediately 
confronted  with  their  adversaries  and  accusers,  Doctors 
Ramus  and  Galland.  The  discussion  was  warm.  The 
representatives  of  the  University  depended  on  the  Prot- 
estants ;  the  Jesuits,  on  the  other  hand,  relied  on  the 
faith  of  the  Roman  Church.  Error  was  on  the  one  side, 
truth  on  the  other.  It  was  clear  that  the  Fathers  would 
be  the  victors,  and  such  was  the  result.  The  venerable 
High  Constable,  turning  toward  the  Jesuits,  addressed 
them  thus  : 

"  Reverend  Fathers,  I  am  not  ignorant  of  all  that  your 
society  has  had  to  suiFer  in  France,  especially  since  schism 


GENERALSIIir   OF    ST.    FRANCIS    BORGIA.  157 

has  publicly  shown  itself;  and  you  ought  to  bear  those 
persecutions  so  much  the  more  willingly,  as  they  are 
similar  to  those  to  which  the  good  are  ever  subjected; 
and  you  know  that  all  those  who  have  labored  success- 
fully in  the  Church  of  God  have,  like  you,  encountered 
innumerable  obstacles.  If  you  continue  to  serve  the 
Church  and  the  country,  with  the  same  disinterestedness, 
you  will  have  nothing  to  fear.  As  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
I  shall  ever  be  at  your  service." 

The  University  felt  this  defeat  sorely,  and,  considering 
that  it  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  pass  unnoticed,  sought 
to  avenge  it.  Father  Perpinien  held  a  professorship  at 
Paris,  with  a  success  that  fully  justified  his  high  charac- 
ter for  learning  and  eloquence.  His  lectures  on  the  ne- 
cessity of  upholding  and  maintaining  the  Catholic  faith, 
in  all  its  purity,  attracted  so  many  Protestants,  and  re- 
claimed so  many  who  had  strayed  from  the  Church,  that 
the  University  became  alarmed.  Moreover,  this  was  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  carry  out  their  project,  and  they 
embraced  it. 

The  members  of  the  University  and  the  Calvinists  came 
to  an  understanding  with  each  other.  One  day  they  at- 
tended the  Father's  lecture,  and  scarcely  had  he  com- 
menced, when  yells  and  hisses  were  heard  on  all  sides, 
which  completely  drowned  the  sound  of  his  voice,  and 
called  forth  general  indignation.  The  Jesuit  did  not  ap- 
pear to  be  the  least  disconcerted.  He  stopped,  and  turn- 
ing toward  the  place  whence  arose  the  disturbance,  he  cast 
a  significant  look,  which  seemed  to  say,  "  When  you  have 
done,  I  will  continue."  But  his  hearers  were  not  so  pa- 
tient. The  Catholics  rose  en  masse^  and  ignominiously  ex- 
pelled the  intruders,  after  which  order  was  restored,  and 
the  Professor  resumed  his  lecture.  But  this  did  not  suf- 
fice. Providence  had  reserved  another  kind  of  victory  for 
the  Jesuits. 


158  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

In  the  summer  of  1557,  a  distinguished  noble  arrived. 
in  all  haste,  at  the  College  of  Clermont,  as  one  accustomed 
to  the  place,  and  proceeded  directly  to  the  apartment  of 
the  Father  Provincial  of  France,  Oliver  Manare.  His 
face  was  pallid,  his  look  gloomy,  and  his  voice  tremulous; 
his  whole  demeanor  betokened  the  deepest  emotion.  It 
was  Peter  Kotska,  who  was  related  to  St.  Stanislaus,  and 
who  subsequently  became  Bishop  of  Culm. 

"Reverend  Father,"  said  he,  addressing  the  Provincial, 
"a  diabolical  plot  is  about  to  explode.  We  are  on  the 
point  of  witnessing  a  most  frightful  catastrophe  !  " 

"What  is  the  matter?"  asked  the  Father,  with  his 
wonted  serenity. 

"  Nothing  less,  Father,  than  that  the  city  is  about  to 
be  fired  at  different  points,  while  a  band  of  conspirators 
will  seize  upon  the  person  of  the  King,  who,  you  are 
aware,  is  at  present  at  Meaux." 

"  Are  you  satisfied  of  the  existence  of  this  diabolical 
plot?" 

"  Nothino:,  Reverend  Father,  can  be  more  certain.  I 
have  the  information  from  a  Calvinist,  an  old  friend  of 
mine,  who  has  given  me  this  timely  warning  that  I  may 
take  steps  for  my  own  personal  safety,  and  I  have  hast- 
ened to  urge  you  to  imitate  my  example  ;  for  your  house 
will  not  be  spared,  and,  as  the  hour  is  fixed  for  to-morrow 
night,  there  is  not  a  moment  to  be  lost," 

"  This  does  not  in  the  least  astonish  me,"  said  Father 
Oliver.  "  For  the  last  few  days  I  have  observed  a  sort 
of  feverish  agitation  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  which 
is  always  the  precursor  of  an  approaching  violent  commo- 
tion. But  let  us  trust  in  Providence.  It  can  not  be  with- 
out some  wise  design  that  you  have  been  thus  timely 
warned  of  the  danger,  and  that  you  have  been  providen- 
tially inspired  to  communicate  to  us  the  notice  you  have 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  159 

received.  Let  us  proceed  together,  without  delay,  to  con- 
fer with  the  autliorities." 

The  secret  of  the  Calvinists  had  been  so  carefully  kept 
that  no  one  of  the  municipal  magistrates  had  the  least 
suspicion  of  the  wicked  project.  j\  special  courier  was 
forthwith  dispatched  to  Mcaux.  Charles  IX  immediately 
returned  to  Paris,  and,  at  the  approach  of  night,  all  the 
houses  and  public  buildings  were  illuminated.  The  con- 
spirators knew  that  their  plot  had  been  detected,  and  they 
were,  consequently,  afraid  to  take  any  step.  A  close 
search  of  their  houses  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  stores 
of  fire-arms  and  combustible  materials,  as  well  as  a  list 
of  the  leading  conspirators. 

Catharine  de  Medicis  and  her  son  vowed  to  reveni:;e 
themselves  for  this  diabolical  conspiracy,  in  which  the 
Prince  of  Conde  and  Admiral  Coligny  were  implicated  ; 
and  they  were  but  too  true  to  their  word.  The  King, 
however,  was  saved,  as  were  likewise  the  city  of  Paris 
and  its  inhabitants ;  and  the  great  services  rendered  to 
the  monarchy  by  Father  Manare  were  duly  appreciated 
by  the  sovereign,  who  promised  to  reward  them. 

While  Providence  thus  made  use  of  the  Provincial  of 
France  to  baffle  at  Paris  the  criminal  plans  of  the  Cal- 
vinists, it  elsewhere  employed  the  Provincial  of  Guienne 
under  equally  unforeseen  circumstances.  This  provincial, 
we  have  already  said,  was  no  other  than  the  angelic 
Father  Auger,  the  beloved  apostle  of  the  south  of  France. 
He  had  been  at  Toulouse,  where  he  had  electrified  the 
souls  of  all  by  his  attractive  eloquence,  and  arrived  at 
Lyons  about  the  middle  of  September,  when  he  was 
warned  that  the  Protestants  were  about  to  carry  out  a 
dreadful  and  carefully  concocted  conspiracy.  They  held 
secret  communications  with  traitors  within  the  city,  who 
were  ready  to  throw  open  to  them  the  gates,  and  to  aid 


160  HISTORY  OP   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

them  in  setting  fire  to  the  town,  pillaging  and  devastating 
the  churches  and  convents,  and  putting  to  death  all  those 
who  should  attempt  to  oppose  their  sacrilegious  furj. 

The  President,  de  Birague,  was,  at  the  time.  Governor 
of  Lyons.  Father  Emond  Auger  at  once  warned  him  of 
the  plot  of  the  Huguenots,  and  added  : 

"  Keep  on  your  guard  ;  make  preparations  to  defend 
yourselves;  for  I  am  sure  of  the  reliability  of  the  informa- 
tion I  have  received.' ' 

"  To  take  measures  for  defense,"  said  the  Governor, 
"  would  alarm  the  inhabitants,  excite  them,  and,  perhaps, 
hasten  the  arrival  of  the  heretics.  However,  we  will  see ; 
I  will  confer  with  the  authorities." 

But  a  few  days  elapsed  before  Father  Auger,  whose 
counsels  appeared  to  have  been  forgotten,  returned  to  the 
Governor. 

"Your  Honor,"  said  he,  "there  is  no  time  to  be  lost. 

.  Lanoue  has  taken  possession  of  Macon,  where  he  has  left 

a  strong  garrison,  and  is  marching  on  Lyons.     This  very 

night  the  town,  at  a  given  signal,  will    be  given   up   to 

him." 

"  This  night.  Reverend  Father?" 

"  This  very  night,  your  Honor.  I  can  not  tell  you  by 
whom  or  in  what  manner  I  have  been  informed,  but  the 
fact  is  only  too  true." 

"Ah!  Father,  what  can  we  do  but  sell  our  lives  as 
dearly  as  we  can  ?  " 

"  Sir,"  replied  the  Jesuit,  "  you  must  obviate  such  a 
calamity.  Avoid  bloodshed,  the  profanation  of  our  sanc- 
tuaries, sacrilegious  murders,  and  all  the  crimes  of  which 
hell  awaits  the  terrible  accomplishment." 

"  But  yet.  Reverend  Father,  by  what  means  ?  Can  you 
devise  one  ?     I  am  ready  to  carry  it  out." 

"  Well,  sir,  the  signal — " 

At   this  moment   it  was   announced   to  the   Governor 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  161 

that  all  the  clock-makers  of  the  city  were  assembled   in 
the  guard-room. 

"All  the  clock-makers  of  the  city!"  exclaimed  he, 
with  astonishment. 

"  I  was  about  to  inform  you,"  said  Father  Emond, 
that  I  had  requested  them  to  meet  here,  in  order  to  ques- 
tion them  in  your  presence  ;  for  they  alone  are  able  to 
preserve  the  unfortunate  city  from  its  impending  fate." 

"  The  clock-makers,  Father  !  " 

"  Yes,  the  clock-makers ;  and  for  this  reason  :  The 
signal  agreed  upon  between  the  Calvinists  and  the  Lord 
of  Lanoue  is  the  striking  of  the  hour  of  midnight  by  the 
clock  of  St.  Nizier.  Now,  the  idea  has  occurred  to  me, 
in  the  absence  of  better  counsel,  to  chancre  the  hours  of 
all  the  clocks  of  the  city,  so  that  it  shall  be  impossible 
for  any  one  to  ascertain  the  correct  time." 

The  clock-makers,  who  were  consulted  on  the  spot,  de- 
clared the  suggestion  to  be  practicable,  and  received   or-  t 
ders  to  proceed  forthwith  to  carry  it  into  execution. 

Perplexed  and  confused  at  the  disorderly  chiming  of 
the  bells,  the  traitors  did  not  attempt  to  fulfil  their  prom- 
ise of  opening  the  gates.  Lanoue  perceived  that  he  had 
been  betrayed,  and  retreated  with  his  forces  across  the 
country  to  Vienne  and  Valence.  Thus  was  Lyons  saved. 
Thanks  to  the  perseverance  and  penetration  of  Father 
Auger,  the  Governor  had  been  made  acquainted  with  the 
plan  of  attack,  which  he  could  not  be  brought  to  believe 
until  the  last  moment.  Afterward  he  was  able  to  adopt 
the  necessary  means  for  guarding  against  any  future 
attempt. 

The  Catholics  of  Paris  and  Lyons  could  not  sufficiently 
express  their  gratitude  to  the  Jesuits,  whom  they  regarded 
and  proclaimed  as  their  deliverers  and  protectors.  It 
was  decreed  by  the  King  that  henceforth  the  Society  of 
Jesus  was  authorized  to  avail    themselves  of  all  the   be* 


162  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OP   JESUS. 

quests  which  might  be  made  in  their  favor.  Moreover, 
the  Jesuits  were  solicited  by  all  the  bishops  to  settle  in 
their  respective  dioceses ;  and  they  became  as  popular  in 
France  as  they  were  every-where  else.  The  hatred  which 
the  heretics  had  conceived  for  the  society  was  so  appar- 
ent that  there  could  no  longer  be  any  doubt  of  the  quar- 
ter whence  proceeded  the  opposition  and  persecution 
which  had  followed  them  in  all  times  and  in  all  places. 

IV. 

Throughout  Germany  the  labors  of  the  Jesuits,  under 
the  enlightened  and  zealous  direction  of  the  celebrated 
Canisius,  Superior  of  the  Province,  were  productive  of  the 
most  encouraging  results,  notwithstanding  the  unceasing 
exertions  of  the  partisans  of  heresy  to  combat  their  in- 
fluence. From  all  quarters  the  provincial  received  ap- 
plications for  residences  and  colleges,  which  cities  and 
princes  volunteered  to  found  and  support.  Thus,  the  so- 
ciety extended,  in  a  most  wonderful  manner,  throughout 
the  northern  states,  where  heresy  had  its  first  origin,  and 
where  it  numbered  so  many  victims.  Even  Poland  pos- 
sessed houses  and  colleges  of  the  Order,  for  she  had  heard 
the  ^^  Apostle  of  Germany ^^'  as  Canisius  was  surnamed, 
and,  wherever  he  appeared,  his  eminent  holiness,  brilliant 
eloquence,  and  profound  erudition  called  forth  irresistible 
and  rapturous  admiration  for  the  Order  of  which  he  was 
so  bright  an  ornament.  It  seemed  that  by  his  mere  pres- 
ence he  triumphed  over  all  the  calumnies  which  the  her- 
etics had  industriously  circulated  against  the  Society  of 
Jesus. 

Father  Canisius  had  so  completely  won  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  all  the  German  princes  of  whom  he  was 
the  friend  and  adviser,  that  the  Pope  appointed  him  his 
Legate  in  that  country,  with  a  view  to  induce  them  to 
openly  receive    the    decisions  of   the  Council    of   Trent. 


GENERALSHIP    OP    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  -  163 

Scarcely  had  he  accomplished  this  important  mission, 
when  he  was  ordered,  in  the  same  capacity  of  Let^ate,  to 
the  Diet  of  Augsbur<2^,  there  to  represent  and  uphold  the 
interests  of  the  Holy  See. 

Worn  out  by  excessive  and  unceasing  labors,  the  good 
Father  appeared  to  have  scarcely  a  breath  of  life.  Nev- 
ertheless, accompaniud  by  Fathers  Natale  and  Ledesma, 
he  set  out  on  his  mission,  and  assumed  his  place  in  the 
Diet,  where  he  rendered  important  services  to  the  Church, 
not  only  by  his  vigorous  and  conclusive  speeches  against 
the  sectarians,  but  by  his  influence  over  the  Princeis  Elect- 
ors, whose  decisions  he  directed  with  admirable  ability. 

After  leaving  Augsburg,  the  three  Fathers  separated,  and 

entered  upon  their  duties  of  combating  heresy  in  differ- 
ent directions  throughout  Germany.  Under  the  influence 
of  their  preaching,  many  of  the  nobles  and  their  depend- 
ents returned  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  The  heretics 
desired  no  better  pretext  than  this  to  accuse  the  Jesuits 
of  conspiracy  against  the  Emperor.  This  idea,  however, 
had  not  even  the  merit  of  originality,  but  the  spirit  which 
had  always  actuated  the  enemies  and  adversaries  of  the 
society  had  never  been  satisfied  or  discouraged.  The 
Emperor  could  readily  understand  the  object  of  such  a 
charge.  On  reaching  the  college  of  Dillingen  Father 
Canisius  heard  that  a  young  Pole  had  just  made  appli- 
cation for  admittance  into  the  society.  The  provincial 
saw  this  youth,  or  rather  this  child — for  he  had  scarcely 
attained  his  sixteenth  year — and  was  struck  by  his  an- 
gelic mildness,  his  heavenly  expression  of  countenance, 
and  the  extreme  modesty  of  his  address.  This  gentle 
boy,  descended  from  a  noble  and  illustrious  race,  was  the 
object  of  persecution  to  an  elder  brother,  who  opposed 
his  religious  vocation.  To  escape  this  persecution,  he, 
who  one  day  was  to  shine  as  a  brilliant  light  in  the 
Church  and  a  model  for  the  young,  had  sought  shelter 
16 


164  •  HISTORY    OF    TUE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

in  the  college  of  Dillingen,  to  reach  which  he  had  freely 
undertaken  a  long  and  fatiguing  journey  on  foot.  Father 
Canisius,  discovering  in  him  unmistakable  signs  of  a  true 
vocation,  sent  him  to  Rome,  with  a  recommendation  to 
Father  Bor2;ia.  The  antrel  and  the  saint  at  once  under- 
stood  each  other,  and  at  first  sight  their  love  was  mutual. 
But  the  angel  preceded  the  saint  in  his  ascent  to  heaven. 
Scarcely  had  Stanislaus  Kostka  entered  the  novitiate  of 
St.  Andrew,  of  which  he  was  the  most  perfect  model,  than 
his  angelic  soul  took  its  flight  to  the  home  of  the  blessed, 
on  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption,  1568. 

In  the  following  year,  while  Father  Canisius  was 
preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  peasants  of  Elwangen,  the 
heretics  suddenly  declared  that  the  illustrious  Jesuit, 
whom  the  Catholics  gloried  in  calling  the  Apostle  of 
Germany,  had  at  length  opened  his  eyes  to  the  truth. 
A  chosen  soul,  said  they,  like  that  of  Canisius,  could  not 
remain  longer  in  the  darkness  of  Popery ;  he  would  soon 
openly  declare  himself  in  favor  of  the  Reformation. 

This  calumnious  report  spread  with  such  rapidity  that 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  became  justly  alarmed,  for  it 
might  give  rise  to  many  and  important  defections.  The 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Augsburg  at  once  informed  Ca- 
nisius of  the  current  report,  and  the  latter  lost  not  a 
moment  in  repairing  to  Wurtzburg,  whence  the  calumny 
emanated.  Having  journeyed  to  the  city  on  foot,  he  went 
through  the  streets,  inviting  the  people  to  assemble  in  the 
cathedral,  where  he  was  soon  followed  by  such  a  crowd 
that  not  only  was  the  edifice  filled,  but  the  people 
thronged  around  it  in  great  numbers.  The  holy  apostle, 
all  covered  with  dust,  as  he  was,  after  a  long  and  fa- 
tiguing journey,  ascended  the  pulpit,  and  so  forcibly  and 
vigorously  refuted  the  base  calumnies,  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  repeat  his  discourse  three  times,  in  order  to  sat- 
isfy the  multitudes  that  poured  in  to  listen  to  him. 


GENERALSlIir  OF    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  165 

Thus  were  the  purposes  of  the  heretics  defeated  ;  for, 
in  his  own  way,  Father  Canisius  had  completely  refuted 
their  odious  slander.  But  the  Catholics  were  not  yet 
satisfied;  they,  too,  wished  to  testify  to  their  belief  in 
the  doctrines  of  the  Roman  Church,  and,  desiring  their 
testimony  to  be  not  only  authentic,  but  lasting,  they 
founded  new  colleges  for  the  society.  Such  was  the 
success  that  attended  the  last  maneuvre  of  the  heretics — 
a  success  far  different  from  that  which  they  had  hoped  to 
obtain. 

The  venerable  Apostle  of  Germany  found  himself  over- 
burdened with  his  arduous  duties,  and  implored  the 
Father-General  to  relieve  him  from  the  onerous  position 
of  Provincial,  being  fearful  lest  he  should  not  discharge 
its  obligations  as  perfectly  as  he  could  desire  ;  especially, 
as  he  had  just  been  commanded  by  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff to  refute  a  recently  published  heretical  work,  in  which 
the  Church  was  vilely  calumniated  and  ridiculed.  He 
was  succeeded  in  the  government  of  the  German  province 
by  Father  Maggio,  whose  learning  and  eloquence  had  al- 
ready done  so  much  for  the  Church  in  German3^ 

From  his  first  entering  upon  the  duties  of  Provincial, 
the  Pope  confided  to  the  latter  a  most  delicate  and  im- 
portant mission  to  the  King  of  Poland.  It  was  with  sor- 
row and  regret  that  this  prince  saw  the  sterility  of  the 
Queen  ;  and  the  Lutherans  hoped  to  turn  this  unhappy 
circumstance  to  the  profit  of  the  Reformation.  At  their 
instigation,  some  of  the  lords  of  the  court  urged  Sigis- 
mond  to  repudiate  the  Queen,  and  suggested  that,  should 
tl  ere  be  any  opposition  or  difficulty  in  the  matter  at  the 
Court  of  Rome,  he  had  but  to  throw  off  its  yoke  and  join 
the  Reformed  religion,  which  sanctioned  divorce.  It  was 
the  mission  of  Father  Maggio  to  dissuade  the  King  from 
this  course,  to  which  he  seemed  seriously  inclined.  The 
Jesuit  entered  upon  this  delicate  undertaking,  and  con- 


166  HISTORY    or    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ducted  it  with  so  much  wisdom  and  prudence,  that  the 
King  declared,  firmly  and  openly,  that  he  would  no  longer 
listen  to  the  suggestion  of  repudiating  the  Queen,  and 
that  his  intention  was  to  live  and  die  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Church  of  Rome. 

In  the  following  year,  1571,  the  King  died,  bequeath- 
ing his  library  to  the  Jesuits.  Here  was  another  result 
which  the  heretics  had  not  foreseen,  when,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  the  King  to  join  their  ranks,  they  had 
urged  him  to  divorce  his  royal  consort. 

Y. 

The  Spaniards,  who  had  ruled  Florida  since  its  discov- 
ery by  Ponce  de  Leon,  in  1512,  had  rendered  their  rule 
odious  to  the  Floridians,  by  their  tyranny ;  the  result  was 
that  the  vanquished  were  continually  revolting  against 
their  victors. 

Philip  II,  desirous  of  putting  an  end  to  these  hostili- 
ties, commissioned  one  of  the  oldest  and  bravest  of  his 
captains,  Don  Pedro  Menendez,  to  undertake  the  subju- 
gation and  pacification  of  Florida. 

"  I  feel  highly  honored  by  the  confidence  your  Majesty 
is  pleased  to  place  in  me,"  replied  the  brave  Menendez. 
"  My  arm  and  my  life  are  at  the  King's  service  ;  but. 
Sire,  the  first  element  of  submission  and  pacification  is 
Christianity,  without  which  all  my  eiforts  will  be  vain. 
I  beg  of  your  JNIajesty  to  allow  some  priests  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Jesus  to  accompany  me  ;  it  is  the  only  means  of 
converting  these  idolaters,  and  of  maintaining  Christianity 
in  the  colony.  With  the  Jesuits,  I  will  answer  for  the 
success  of  my  mission,  no  matter  how  difficult  it  may  be; 
without  them,  I  can  do  nothing  in  Florida  for  your  Maj- 
esty's service." 

"  Well,"  said  the  King,  "  I  will  ask  Don  Francis  Bor- 
gia to  allow  some  Fathers  to  accompany  you.     You  are 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  167 

right;  the  Jesuits  alone  can  subjugate  this  colony,  Span- 
iards as  well  as  Floridians." 

The  King,  accordingly,  wrote  to  the  General  of  the  so- 
ciety asking  for  missionaries,  and  Fathers  Martinez  and 
John  Roger,  and  the  Coadjutor  Francisco  de  Villareal, 
were  detailed  for  that  service. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  156G,  they  were  in  sight  of 
Florida,  but,  for  want  of  competent  native  pilots,  it  was 
found  necessary  to  reconnoitie,  in  order  to  select  a  suita- 
ble point  to  disembark.  The  captain  proposed  to  some 
of  his  sailors  to  go  on  shore  and  explore  the  coast. 

"  We  will  go,  willingly,"  replied  they,  "  but  on  condi- 
tion that  the  Reverend  Father  Martinez  goes  with  us." 

"  ^Yhy  do  you  want  the  Father  to  go  with  you?"  asked 
Menendez. 

"  Captain,"  said  the  oldest  of  the  sailors,  "  the  ferocity 
of  the  natives  has  become  proverbial  in  Spain.  If  we  are 
seen,  we  shall  be  killed,  and  if  the  Father  is  alon^  with 
us,  he  might  conciliate  these  idolaters  and  save  us  ;  or, 
at  least,  he  will  assist  us  to  die  well." 

"Captain,  I  am  ready!"  exclaimed  Father  Martinez. 
These  sailors,  nine  in  number,  were  all  Flemings. 
They  entered  the  boat  with  the  Jesuit,  and  rowed  toward 
the  shore.  They  had  but  just  landed,  when  a  storm  arose, 
driving  before  it  the  vessel  of  Menendez,  which  was  soon 
out  of  sio'ht,  and  the  sailors  and  Father  Martinez  found 
themselves  abandoned  on  the  coast,  where  there  was  no 
sign  of  human  life  to  be  found.  Where  they  were  they 
knew  not.  Most  ardently  did  they  desire  to  meet  one  of 
the  Spanish  settlers,  but  in  vain.  They  longed  for  the 
return  of  their  vessel,  but  from  shore  to  horizon  not  a 
speck  was  to  be  seen.  In  this  forsaken  condition  they 
wandered  over  the  island  for  four  days  and  nights,  hoping 
against  hope.  Their  provisions  were  exhausted,  hun- 
ger, with  all  its  inexpressible  accompaniments,  and  almost 
16* 


168  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

certain  death,  stared  them  in  the  face.  Food  they  must 
seek.  On  the  fifth  day  they  proceeded  further  inland, 
ascended  a  stream,  and  reached  the  island  of  Tacatucura. 
The  Jesuit  went  in  advance,  bearing,  at  the  end  of  a  lance, 
the  holy  image  of  our  Saviour.  But  the  islanders  had 
caught  sight  of  the  strangers,  and  in  a  moment  they  rushed 
upon  and  surrounded  them,  drove  them  into  the  stream, 
where  they  kept  them  until  they  were  nearly  drowned.  The 
good  Father  heroically  encouraged  his  fellow-martyrs. 
The  savages  comprehended  the  effect  of  his  words  on  the 
sailors,  and  they  quickly  sent  his  holy  spirit  to  the 
realms  of  bliss  by  beating  him  to  death  with  clubs.  Two 
of  the  Flemings  died  near  him  ;  the  others  succeeded  in 
effecting  their  escape,  and,"  returning  to  the  boat,  sought 
a  more  hospitable  shore,  to  which,  at  length,  Providence 
directed  them. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  vessel  of  Don  Pedro  Menendez, 
which  the  tempest  had  driven  as  far  as  Cuba,  was  fortu- 
nately enabled  to  reach  one  of  the  ports  of  Florida. 
Scarcely  had  they  disembarked,  when  Roger  and  de  Vil- 
lareal  separated.  The  former  went  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel at  Carolina,  the  latter  to  perform  the  same  Christian 
work  at  Tequesta.  Both  one  and  the  other  planted  the 
Cross  of  Christ  from  place  to  place  along  their  respective 
routes,  and  took  possession  of  those  Infidel  districts  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  zeal  of  the  Fathers  soon 
produced  such  abundant  fruits,  that  they  were  obliged 
to  send  for  additional  missionaries.  Father  Segura,  as 
Provincial,  accompanied  by  several  assistants,  who  were 
ambitious  to  win  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  joined  them, 
and  it  pleased  God  soon  to  afford  these  heroic  souls  an 
opportunity  of  testifying  their  love  and  fidelity  to  Him  by 
the  sacrifice  of  their  lives. 

The  conduct  of  the  Spaniards  had  been  marked  by  so 
much  cruelty  toward  the  Floridians,  that  they  had  just 


GENERALSHIP    OP    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  1G9 

reason  to  fear  their  venireance.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
year  1570,  fearing  a  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  the  Florid- 
ians,  they  had  nias.sacred  several  Caciques,  and  the  brother 
of  one  of  their  victims,  the  Cacique  of  Axaca,  subjected 
the  missionaries  to  that  punishment  which  the  colonists 
had,  by  their  cruelty,  merited.  lie  captured  Father 
Segura  and  put  him  to  death,  along  with  those  who  ac- 
companied him,  and  who,  with  him,  were  devoting  them- 
selves zealously  to  the  service  of  that  province,  which 
famine  had  decimated.  The  martyrdom  of  these  religious, 
however,  but  tended  to  increase  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  those  countries  whose  soil  was  wet  with  their 
blood. 

The  Spaniards,  after  discovering  the  immense  wealth  of 
Peru,  which  they  had  conquered,  saw  it  become  the  resort 
of  all  the  adventurers  of  the  metropolis.  The  very  dregs 
of  the  people  throng^  thither  to  seek  their  fortunes,  and 
the  most  depraved,  whose  vile  passions  had  reduced  them 
to  the  direst  necessities,  did  not  hesitate,  in  order  to  satisfy 
their  cupidity,  to  plunder  the  Peruvians  and  subject  them 
to  the  most  cruel  tortures  to  compel  them  to  give  up  their 
treasures. 

The  King  of  Spain  had  sent  out  Dominicans,  Augustin- 
ians,  and  Franciscans  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  con- 
quered people;  but  the  Peruvians,  to  whom  the  name  of 
Spaniard  had  become  odious,  rejected  the  religion  which 
the  missionaries  came  to  teach  them,  their  only  aim  and 
desire  being  to  shake  ofi  the  yoke  of  their  conquerors  and 
return  to  their  savage  independence.  They  were  in  con- 
tinual revolt,  and  the  war  was  perpetual  between  the  two 

peoples. 

Philip  II  could  discover  but  one  means  of  checking  the 
cruelties  and  disorders  of  the  colonists,  and  to  bring  the 
Peruvians  into  submission  and  civilization,  and  that  waa 
to  send  the  Jesuits  among  them.     He,  therefore,  wrote  to 


170  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Francis  Borgia,  bejjGfins;  that  some  members  of  the  society 
might  be  dispatched  to  Peru,  and  for  that  mission  the 
Father-General  appointed  eight  of  the  Fathers,  naming 
Father  Geronimo  Portillo  Superior  of  the  mission. 

The  news  spread  among  the  Peruvians  that  the  King 
of  Spain,  touched  with  pity  at  the  unhappy  condition  to 
which  they  had  been  reduced  by  the  tyranny  of  the  Euro- 
pean colonists,  was  about  to  seud  to  their  assistance  some 
of  the  brothers  of  the  great  Apostles  of  the  Indies — of 
that  Francis  Xavier,  whose  name  was  blessed  and  revered 
throughout  every  idolatrous  country,  and  even  throughout 
America,  to  which  the  report  of  his  miracles  had  pene- 
trated. The  Peruvians  wept  for  joy  on  hearing  the  happy 
news.  They  had  buried  their  treasures  in  order  to  hide 
them  from  the  avidity  of  the  Spaniards,  but  they  were 
ready  to  lay  them  all  at  the  feet  of  the  brothers  of  the  il- 
lustrious Xavier;  they  would  build  palaces,  erect  churches, 
and  lavish  their  wealth,  their  labors,  and  their  devotedness 
upon  these  Jesuits  who  were  coming  to  save  them. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  month  of  March,  1568,  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Society  of  Jesus  landed  in  safety  at 
Callao,  near  Lima,  looking  for  that  martyrdom  which  had 
been  promised  them  on  their  departure.  But  the  name 
of  the  great  Xavier  had  smoothed  the  way  for  them,  and, 
under  the  protection  of  that  venerated  name,  they  found 
themselves  overwhelmed  with  homage,  respect,  and  love. 
The  inhabitants  of  Lima  immediately  laid  the  foundations 
of  a  church  and  college,  which  were  to  be  of  the  most 
magnificent  character.  Father  Diego  Bracamonte  was  ap- 
pointed rector.  In  the  mean  time.  Father  Portillo,  whose 
eloquence  completely  captivated  the  populace,  undertook. 
the  conversion  of  the  Spaniards,  while  Father  Louis 
Lopez  preached  the  Gospel  to  the  natives.  To  another 
Father  was  confided  the  instruction  of  the  young.  At  the 
same  time  the  Fathers  founded  a  confraternity  for  youths 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.    FRANCIS    BORGIA.  171 

of  noble  birth,  and  their  zeal  was  so  abundantly  blessed  by 
Almighty  God,  in  all  their  undertakings,  that  the  city  of 
Lima  became  most  moral  and  exemplary.  One  single  year 
had  suiBced  for  the  Jesuits  to  effect  this  marvellous  chani-e. 
The  Archbishop  of  Lima,  Don  Geronimo  Loaysa,  a 
Dominican,  was,  for  a  time,  alarmed  upon  hearing  of  the 
arrival  of  the  Jesuits  in  Peru,  as  the  parochial  duties 
were  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  Dominicans.  He 
feared  disputes,  which  are  at  all  times  to  be  regretted,  but 
especially  when  occurring  between  two  religious  orders; 
and,  besides,  he  was  aware  of  all  that  had  been  done  in 
Europe  to  create  rivalry  between  the  Jesuits  and  the 
Dominicans.  His  apprehensions  were  soon  succeeded  by 
the  most  implicit  confidence.  The  humility  of  the  Jes- 
uits, and  their  modest  deference  to  those  Dominicans  who 
had  the  charge  of  parishes,  their  spirit  of  self-denial,  their 
ardent  zeal  for  the  greater  glory  of  God,  and  the  heavenly 
blessings  which  so  marvellously  seconded  their  Apostolical 
labors,  soon  won  for  them  the  most  profound  esteem  and 
the  sincere  attachment  of  the  pious  prelate.  Eight  mis- 
sionaries no  longer  sufficed,  and,  in  1569,  St.  Francis  Bor- 
gia sent  over  twelve  more,  who  were  received  with  so 
much  the  more  joy  by  the  Peruvians  that  they  spoke  their 
own  language.  The  new  missionaries  had  availed  them- 
selves of  the  time  occupied  in  the  voyage  to  make  them- 
selves acquainted  with  this  tongue,  in  order  to  be  •able  to 
exercise  their  holy  ministry  without  delay,  and  with 
greater  efficacy,  in  the  country  places  and  among  the  for- 
ests. Very  soon  the  bishops,  who  witnessed  the  fruits  of 
salvation  produced  by  the  Jesuits,  petitioned  the  General 
of  the  Order  for  a  still  greater  number  of  priests.  The 
Archbishop  of  Quito,  Don  Lopez  de  Solis,  committed  the 
control  of  the  seminary  of  that  city  to  the  Fathers,  and 
all  expressed  a  desire  to  have  colleges  of  the  society  in 
their  dioceses. 


172  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

VI. 

The  Brazilian  mission  had  produced  the  most  satisfac- 
tory results,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  Calvinist 
ministers  to  counteract  the  mild  influence  exercised  by 
the  Jesuits.  There  were  several  colleges  in  a  state  of  great 
prosperity,  and  promising  the  most  beneficial  results  for 
th<  future.  Father  Iirnacio  Azevedo,  after  visitinij;  all  the 
houses  of  the  Order  in  these  countries,  returned  to  Eu- 
rope, where  he  excited  an  ardent  zeal  among  the  Portu- 
guese Fathers  to  undertake  the  arduous  and  perilous 
mission  of  America.  He  next  went  to  Rome,  to  lay  be- 
fore Father  Borgia  and  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  the  progress 
of  Christianity  in  the  colonies  of  Brazil.  He  kindled  the 
same  enthusiasm  in  the  Eternal  City  as  he  had  done  in 
Portugal,  and,  after  obtaining  from  the  Pope  and  the 
Father-General  all  the  favors  he  had  come  to  solicit  for 
the  New  World,  he  left  Rome  to  embark  at  Oporto  with 
a  colony  of  seventy  Jesuits. 

The  fleet  "with  which  they  sailed  was  commanded  by 
Admiral  Vasconcellos.  Ignacio  Azevedo,  with  forty  of 
the  missionaries,  went  on  board  the  San  Diego,  and  the 
remainder,  under  the  direction  of  Fathers  Diaz  and  Fran- 
cisco de  Castro,  divided  their  numbers  between  the  Ad- 
miral's ship  and  the  galley  which  carried  the  orphans, 
whom  the  plague  in  Lisbon  had  caused  to  be  abandoned, 
and  whom  the  Jesuits  had  saved,  protected,  and  adopted. 

They  had  not  been  long  at  sea,  when  a  violent  storm 
arose,  causing  the  San  Diego  to  part  company  with  the 
other  vessels,  which  were  soon  out  of  si<j:ht.  On  nearins: 
Palma,  they  were  chased  by  five  pirates,  cruising  under 
James  Sourie,  of  Dieppe.  Sourie  was  a  bigoted  Calvinist, 
and  his  reputation  for  cruelty  was  proverbially  known 
on  the  seas.  His  band  of  three  hundred  were  the  terror 
of  the   ocean.     The  Sa7i  Diego's  crew   consisted  of  only 


GENERALSHIP   OP    ST.  FRANCIS   BORGIA.  173 

forty  men,  and,  with  this  disparity  of  force,  the  com- 
mander felt  that  his  capture  was  inevitable;  but  he  and 
his  men  were  determined  to  defend  themselves  to  the  last, 
and,  addressing  Father  Azevedo,  he  said: 

"  Father,  there  are  a  great  many  of  you.  Your  young 
companions  are  not  all  priests.  Will  you  allow  those 
who  are  not  ordained  to  take  part  in  the  almost  hopeless 
conflict  in  whicii  we  are  about  to  engage?  We  are  Cath- 
olics, and  the  heretics  would  prefer  our  death  to  any 
booty  they  might  find." 

"I  am  persuaded  of  that,"  said  the  Father;  "but,  nev- 
ertheless, I  can  not  allow  that  which  you  desire.  Our 
young  companions,  who  have  been  brought  up  in  the  holy 
quiet  of  the  sanctuary,  and  who  are  called  to  a  ministry 
of  peace,  are  unfit  for  w^ar,  and  would  be  useless  to  you. 
They  would  render  you  much  greater  service  by  praying 
for  you  all  and  attending  to  the  wounded." 

On  the  15th  July,  Sourie  arrived  within  hail  of  the 
San  Diego,  and  summoned  the  captain  to  surrender  un- 
conditionally. The  San  Diego  replied  by  a  broadside, 
and  the  conflict  commenced.  Isnacio  Azevedo  stood  on 
the  deck,  holding:  aloft  an  imao;e  of  the  ever  Blessed 
Virgin,  and  exciting  the  ardor  of  the  Catholic  soldiery 
who  were  fighting  for  the  faith.  He  had  directed  the 
younger  portion  to  go  below,  and  only  eleven  Jesuits  re- 
mained by  his  side.  Sourie  twice  attempted  to  board  the 
vessel,  and  was  twice  defeated  in  his  purpose.  Enraged 
at  this  failure,  he  ordered  his  whole  force  to  board  the  San 
Diego^  and,  with  fifty  of  his  men,  he  leaped  on  the  deck 
of  the  Portuguese  vessel,  crying,  in  a  voice  of  thunder, 
"At  the  Jesuits!  Death  to  the  Jesuits!  No  quarter  for 
the  dogs!  They  are  going  to  Brazil  to  propagate  their 
false  doctrines,  and  they  must  be  exterminated!" 

The  struggle  was  most  sanguinary.  The  captain  of 
the  San  Diego  was  among  the  first  who  fell.     The  Jesuits 


174  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

were  in  the  midst  of  the  melee,  receivins^  in  their  arms 
and  imparting  a  last  benediction  on  the  men  as  they  sank 
beneath  the  blows  of  the  heretical  pirates.  Several  of 
the  Fathers  were  themselves  wounded,  but,  regardless  of 
their  own  sufferings,  and  of  the  innocent  blood  wl  ich 
flowed  so  copiously,  they  continued  to  bestow  all  their 
care  and  attention  upon  the  brave  sailors  who  so  hero- 
ically faced  death  in  defense  of  the  faith.  The  combat 
over.  Father  Azevedo  collected  around  him  his  compan- 
ions, for  now  the  hour  of  their  doom  was  at  hand  ;  their 
martyrdom  was  to  be  accomplished,  and  already  the  por- 
tals of  heaven  were  being  opened  to  receive  their  sainted 
souls.  x\t  the  word  of  their  chief,  the  Calvinists  rushed 
with  fury  upon  the  Jesuits.  Benito  de  Castro  was  among 
the  first  to  fall,  while  repeating  an  act  of  faith.  Tgnacio 
Azevedo  received  a  sabre  cut,  which  laid  open  his  head, 
causing  the  blood  to  gush  out  over  his  brothers  who  sur- 
rounded him,  and  the  heroic  martyr  expired,  saying  : 

"  Angels  and  men  are  witness  that  I  die  for  the  defense 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church!" 

On  hearing  these  words,  his  fiendish  executioners  rushed 
upon  his  lifeless  corpse,  and  beat  it  with  a  demoniac  fury. 
Thev  then  massacred  the  remainder  of  their  victims,  dis- 
patching  some  with  the  poniard  and  others  by  blows  in- 
flicted with  the  barrels  of  their  blunderbusses. 

Twenty-eight  novices,  by  order  of  their  Superior,  had 
taken  refuge  in  the  hold  at  the  commencement  of  the 
fight;  two  others,  mortally  wounded,  joined  them  after- 
ward. The  heretics  searched  for  and  soon  discovered  them, 
dragged  them  upon  the  deck,  through  the  blood,  and  over 
the  dead  bodies  of  their  brothers,  and  neither  could  the 
extreme  youth,  mildness,  or  modesty  of  the  religious  in 
the  least  pacify  or  conciliate  the  followers  of  Calvin.  Far 
from  it:  they  heaped  upon  them  the  grossest  indignities, 
and  applied  to  them  the  most  derisive  and  insulting  epi 


GENERALSHIP  OP  ST.  FRANCIS  BORGIA.      175 

thets.     This  memorable  martyrdom  took   place  on  a  Fri- 
day,   and    the    heretics    thought    to    make    these    angelic 
victims  transgress  the  laws  of  the  Church  by  forcing  them 
to  eat  meat;  but  the  heroic  youths  and  martyrs  steadfastly 
refused    to    yield   to   the   commands  of  their  persecutors. 
The    heretics   forced    into    their    mouths   the    prohibited 
viand,  but  it  was  as  quickly  ejected  and   trampled  upon. 
Their  enemies  promised  to  spare  their  lives  if  they  would 
renounce    their   faith,  but    they  answered  by  a  look,  the 
expression  of  which  was  the  strongest  protestation  of  un- 
flinching  fidelity  to    the    true   faith.      During  an    entire 
hour,  there,  in  the  blood  of  their   brethren  who  had  just 
preceded  them  to  heaven,  and  beside  their  holy  remains, 
were  they  most  grossly  insulted  and  outraged,  their  piety, 
humility,  and  angelic  vocation  scofied  at.     Their  execution- 
ers at  last  became  tired  of  this  gentle  patience  and  indomi- 
table courage.    Those  who  were  in  orders  they  sacrilegiously 
put  to  death,  by  crushing  their  heads  in  that  place  where 
the  hand  of  the  bishop  had  marked  and  consecrated  them 
for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary.     Others  were  tied  by  the 
feet,  two  by  two,  and  thus  conveyed  to  the  edge  of  the  ves- 
sels, where  their  tormentors  again  assailed  them  with  blows 
and  insults,  and  precipitated  them  into  the  sea  without 
ascertaining  whether  they  were  dead  or  alive.    Two  of  them 
were  ill  and  on  the  very  point  of  death,  yet  they  received  no 
mercy;  they  were  insulted,  struck,  ill-treated,  like  the  rest, 
and,  like  them,  cast  into  the  waves.      They  came  upon  one 
who  appeared  as  if  he  could  not  die,  notwithstanding  the 
excessive  cruelties  that  had  been  practised  upon  him.     To 
dispatch  him,  he  was  placed   at  the   mouth  of  a  cannon, 
and  his  scattered  remains  were  blown  into  the  air.     The 
life  of  Brother  Juan  Sanchez,  who  acted  as  cook  to  the 
missionaries,  was   spared,  the   Calvinists   revelHng   in  the 
idea  of  being  served  by  a  Jesuit.     He  was  ordered  to  con- 
tinue to  follow  his  usual  employment  as    cook,    and,  al- 
17 


176  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS.  • 

though  this  cruel  fate  was  far  worse  than  death  to  him, 
he  had  no  choice  but  to  submit. 

The  horrible  butchery  was  at  an  end.  Thirty -nine  mar- 
tyrs of  the  Society  of  Jesus  had  just  ascended  to  heaven, 
there  to  receive  their  crown  of  martyrdom.  Only  one  was 
wanting  to  make  the  glorious  phalanx  of  heroes  complete, 
since  Brother  Sanchez  was  doomed  to  survive  those  whom 
he  already  looked  up  to  with  mingled  feelings  of  envy 
and  regret. 

"  And  I,"  suddenly  exclaimed  a  young  man,  "  I,  also, 
am  of  the  Society  of  Jesus." 

"  You !  "  said  James  Sourie.  "  You  do  not  wear  the  habit 
of  those  Papists;  you  do  not  deserve  death." 

At  once  the  young  man  bent  over  the  body  of  one  of 
the  martyrs,  which  was  still  stretched  on  the  deck  of  the 
San  Diego,  stripped  it  of  the  blood-stained  cassock,  clothed 
himself  with  the  venerated  garment,  and  said  to  the  for- 
midable and  blood-thirsty  pirate: 

"  Behold  me  now !  During  the  voyage,  I  admired  and 
loved  the  Jesuits,  and  felt  mvself  called  to  become  one 
of  them.  I  asked  Father  Azevedo  to  receive  me  among 
the  postulants,  which  he  promised  to  do,  and  I  beg  of 
you  now  to  fulfil    his  word." 

In  another  second  his  heroism  had  received  i'ts  reward. 
This  young  hero  was  the  nephew  of  the  captain  of  the 
San  Diego. ^ 

*  On  the  21st  September,  1742,  Benedict  XIV  declared  the  following 
forty  Jesuits  to  be  martyrs.  Their  names  are  here  given  as  we  find 
them  in  the  history  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  by  M.  Cretineau  Joly  : 
Ignacio  d'Azevedo,  Benito  de  Castro,  d'Andrada,  Alvarez,  Ribeiro, 
Fonseca,  Mendez,  Escrivan,  d'Acosta,  P.  Alvarez  de  Covillo,  D. 
Jlermandez,  Vaena,  Antonio  Suarez,  Gonzalez  Henriquez,  J.  Fernan- 
dez de  Braga,  J.  Fernandez  de  Lisbon,  Juan  de  Majorca,  Delgado, 
Louis  Correa,  Em.  Rodriguez,  Lopez,  Pedro  Munhoz,  JSIagallanes, 
Dings,  Gaspar  Alvarez,  Antonio  A.  Hernandez,  Pacheco,  Pedro  de 
Fontaura,  Andres  Gonzalvez,  Perez,  Antonio  Correa,  Amado  Vaz, 


GENERALSHIP   OF    ST.  FRANCIS    BORGIA.  177 

James  Sourie  was  in  the  service  of  Queen  Jane  d'Al- 
bret,  who  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  Vice-Admiral. 
We  must  add  that  this  princess  publicly  censured  the 
horrible  cruelty  of  the  famous  corsair,  and  commanded 
him  to  set  at  liberty  brother  Sanchez  and  the  Catholics 
of  the  Sa7i  Diego. 

Admiral  Vasconcellos,  after  having  wandered  on  the  seas 
for  sixteen  months,  at  length  made  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
when  he  fell  in  with  four  French  galleys  and  an  English 
vessel.  This  hostile  squadron  was  commanded  by  the 
pirate  Capdeville,  whose  cruelty  was  only  equalled  by  that 
of  Sourie,  and  who  was  not  less  devoted  to  the  Calvinistic 
cause.  He  was  aware  that  several  Jesuits  accompanied 
the  Admiral's  fleet,  and  that  they  were  going  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  some  of  the  most  distant  savage  tribes  of 
Brazil.  His  desire,  therefore,  was  to  prevent  their  land- 
ing on  a  shore  where  they  were  awaited  with  so  much 
impatience.  Above  all,  he  sought  the  lives  of  the  Jes- 
uits, hoping,  by  this  course,  to  cool  the  ardor  and  dimin- 
ish the  zeal  of  their  brethren,  and  thus  cause  them  to 
abandon  the  great  enterprise  which  had  been  so  happily 
commenced  by  their  predecessors.  He  gave  the  order  to 
attack.  The  Portuguese  displayed  the  most  daring  cour- 
aire.  Vasconcellos  himself  fou2;ht  like  a  lion,  but  soon 
fell  dead  under  the  hot  and  sustained  fire  of  the  French 
galleys.  The  crew  were  dismayed  at  this  great  loss,  and, 
being  very  inferior  in  numbers,  were  finally  defeated  by 
the  heretics,  and  the  Jesuits  found  themselves  at  the  mercy 
of  their  enemies. 

Fathers  Diaz  and  Francisco  de  Castro  were  immediately 
put 'to  death.    The  others  were  subjected  to  the  most  mer- 

Oaldeira,  Baeza,  Fernando  Sanchez,  Perez  Godoi,  Zuraire,  Juan  de 
Zafra,  San  Martino,  and  San  Juan,  who  took  the  place  of  Brother 
Sanchez. 


178  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ciless  tortures  during  twenty-four  hours,  and,  the  angelic 
patience  they  displayed  during  that  time  at  length  tiring 
their  persecutors,  they  were  all  massacred,  without  a 
single  exception.  Thus,  of  seventy-one  Fathers,  novices, 
or  brothers.  Brother  Sanchez  alone  escaped  the  fiendish 
barbarity  of  the  Protestants,  who  spared  his  life  only  that 
he  might  be  a  living  martyr  in  being  compelled  to  serve 
them,  and  submit  to  their  incessant  insults,  indignities, 
and  taunts. 

And  yet  Protestants  exclaim  against  the  intolerance  of 
Catholics  ! 

The  great  work  of  the  illustrious  Xavier  continued  to 
prosper,  with  undiminished  success,  throughout  the  East 
Indies  and  Japan  ;  for  it  was  impossible  that  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs  should  fail  to  produce  good  fruits  from 
the  seeds  so  carefully  sown  by  the  missionaries  amid  so 
many  dangers. 

In  the  Moluccas  the  Pa2:ans  seconded  the  efforts  of 
the  Mohammedans  to  arrest  the  progress  of  Christianity. 
They  eagerly  sought  the  most  trifling  excuse  to  attack 
the  neighboring  Christians,  whose  churches  they  demol- 
ished, desecrating  their  crosses,  and  murdering  the  in- 
habitants, who  had  no  time  to  arm  themselves  for 
defense.  True,  these  latter  could  have  saved  their  lives 
by  apostasy,  but  they  preferred  death  to  a  renunciation 
of  the  true  faith.  When  circumstances  allowed  them  to 
defend  themselves,  and  to  resist  the  assaults  of  their 
enemies,  the  missionaries  always  went  in  advance,  bearing 
aloft  the  Cross,  which  they  displayed  as  a  sign  of  encour- 
agement, consolation,  and  hope,  exhorting  them  to  meet 
death  in  a  manner  becoming  the  valiant  defenders  of  the 
Cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  the  Infidels  had  just  torn 
down  and  desecrated  before  their  eyes. 

In  one  of  the  engagements  in  the  island  of  Ouby,  in 
the  year  1568,  Brother  Vincente   Diaz,  all  covered  with 


GENERALSHIP   OF   ST.   FRANCIS   BORGIA.  179 

wounds,  and  bathed  in  blood,  remained  heroically  on  the 
field  of  battle,  where  he  bore  aloft  the  emblem  of  salva- 
tion, in  order  to  inflame  the  ardor  of  the  soldiers,  utterly 
regardless  of  his  own  sufferings,  until  victory  had  crowned 
the  efi"orts  of  the  Christians. 

Father  Mascarenas,  Superior  of  the  missions,  lavished 
all  his  cares  on  the  wounded,  and  aifurded  spiritual  con- 
solation to  the  dying,  having  previously  prayed  fervently 
that  God  would  be  pleased  to  grant  the  victory  which 
crowned  the  Christian  arms  that  day. 

Father  Mascarenas  had  succeeded  in  saving  from  idol- 
atry, or  Islamism,  the  kingdom  of  Siokon,  in  the  island 
of  Mindanao;  that  of  Manado,  in  the  island  of  Celebes; 
and  that  of  Sanghir,  near  the  Philippines.  These  con- 
quests had  rendered  his  name  formidable  to  the  enemies 
of  Christianity. 

The  Pagans  had  declared  they  would  put  him  to  death. 
The  holy  Father  was  as  well  aware  of  the  ftict  as  he  was 
that  martyrdom  was  what  he  had  vowed  to  suffer  for  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  But  who  would  sustain  and  strengthen 
his  converts,  if  he  allowed  himself  to  be  taken  by  his 
enemies  ?  Pastor  of  the  flock  which  had  been  confided 
to  him,  he  could  not  abandon  it  to  the  mercy  of  those 
who  sought  to  persecute  every  thing  Christian,  and  he 
felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  await  patiently  the  moment 
marked  by  Providence,  and  to  continue  perseveringly  his 
apostolic  mission.  He,  therefore,  retired  to  the  woods, 
subsisting  exclusively  on  wild  herbs,  and,  alone  with  Al- 
mighty God,  apart  from  all  human  consolation,  he  prayed 
and  he  forgave  ;  and  he  looked  and  hoped  for  that  glorious 
crown  of  martyrdom  which  they  had  held  out  as  an  in- 
ducement to  him  when  leaving  his  brethren,  his  country, 
and  Europe,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  nations  of  the 
East.  His  ambitious  desire  was  soon  satisfied.  Tracked 
day  and  night  by  the  idolaters,  amid  the  recesses  of  the 
17* 


180  HISTORY    OF    TEE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

woods  which  he  had  selected  as  his  retreat,  he  was  at 
length  discovered,  and  poisoned  by  them,  on  the  7th  of 
January,  1570.  For  eight  entire  days  he  had  remained 
in  his  wild  and  lonely  retreat,  suflfering  unheard-of  pri- 
vations, and  being  exposed  not  only  to  the  attacks  of 
wild  beasts,  but,  also,  to  the  inclemency  of  a  most  severe 
season, 

Christianity  continued  to  spread  throughout  Japan,  not- 
withstanding the  exertions  of  the  Bonzes  to  arrest  its  pro- 
gress. So  great  was  the  faith  among  the  Christians,  that 
it  was  proof  against  threats,  allurements,  and  even  death 
itself  in  those  states  where  the  sovereigns,  having  con- 
tinued Pagans,  allowed  themselves  to  be  ruled  by  the  priests 
of  idolatry.  True,  such  princes  were  few  in  number.  It 
pleased  Almighty  God  to  shower  such  manifold  blessings 
upon  the  holy  apostleship  of  the  missionaries,  that  the 
majority  of  the  Japanese  princes  had  embraced  the  re- 
ligion of  the  great  Bonze  JCavier,  as  they  continued  to 
designate  the  Divine  law  introduced  among  them  by  the 
Apostle  of  the  East,  whose  memory  was  ever  loved  and 
cherished  whereve-r  he  had  been. 

His  companion,  friend,  and  co-laborer  in  this  distant 
mission,  Father  Cosmo  de  Torrez,  still  lived,  and  continued 
to  work  with  zeal  in  the  same  field  which  had  been  blessed 
by  the  exertions  of  Francis  Xavier ;  but  he  was  advanced 
in  years,  and  weakened  still  more  by  his  long  and  arduous 
missionary  duties.  He  had  resided  at  Xequi,  in  the  island 
of  Amakusa,  ever  since  his  enfeebled  state  had  prevented 
him  from  fulfilling  the  duties  of  his  position  as  heretofore, 
and  he  requested  St.  Francis  Borgia  to  appoint  another 
Provincial  in  his  place.  At  that  period,  the  means  of 
communication  were  much  more  difficult  than  at  the  pres- 
ent day  ;  all  correspondence  was  irregular  and  uncertain, 
and  Father  de  Torrez,  who  had  requested  to  be  allowed  to 
return  to  Europe,  declined  daily.     In  1568,  Father  Yalla 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.  FRANCIS    BORGIA.  181 

landed  in  Japan,  whore  lie  was  received  with  transports  of 
joy,  as  were  all  the  Jesuits  who  went  tliither  to  labor  fur 
God's  glory.  To  every  Japanese  Christian  they  were  as 
so  many  dear  fathers.  On  his  arrival,  he  sought  the 
Father  Provincial,  the  veteran  of  the  Japanese  missions, 
and,  having  been  introduced,  humbly  prostrated  himself 
before  him,  saying:  "Father,  you  M^ere  the  friend  of  our 
illustrious  and  venerated  Father  Xavier ;  you  had  the 
happiness  of  accompanying  him  in  his  perilous  travels,  of 
sharing  the  labors  and  dangers  of  his  glorious  apostleship, 
of  enjoying  his  holy  conversation,  his  salutary  encourage- 
ment, and  his  admirable  exaniDle.  Allow  me  to  embrace 
your  feet,  and  I  beg  of  you  to  call  down  all  the  blessings 
of  God  upon  the  labors  I  am  about  to  undertake  for  His 
glory." 

Father  Torrez  gave  him  his  blessing,  and,  raising  him 
from  the  ground,  after  having  affectionately  embraced  him, 
informed  him  that  he  intended  him  to  remain  at  Xequi,  to 
attend  the  synod  which  he  was  about  to  convoke.  He 
called  together  all  the  Fathers  who  were  distributed 
throughout  the  empire,  and,  after  having  arranged  the 
affairs  of  the  colonies,  he  assigned  to  each  of  the  Fathers 
a  special  mission,  to  which  he  should  devote  all  his  time 
and  care,  and  then  patiently  awaited  the  arrival  of  a  new 
Provincial.  At  length,  in  the  course  of  the  year  1570, 
Father  Cabral  arrived  at  Xequi  in  that  capacity,  and  pre- 
sented to  his  predecessor  the  permission  to  return  to 
Europe,  where  he  desired  to  end  his  days.  The  venerable 
Father  had  spent  twenty-one  years  of  his  life  in  the  mis- 
sion of  Japan,  during  which  time  he  had  baptized,  with 
his  own  hands,  more  than  thirty  thousand  idolaters,  and 
had  erected  fifty  churches.  Almighty  God  willed  that 
he  should  not  leave  his  mortal  remains  on  any  other  soil 
than  that  upon  which  he  had  reaped  such  an  abundant 
harvest  of  immortal  souls.     When  the  vessel  which  was 


182  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

to  convey  him  to  Europe  was  about  to  set  sail,  he  was  at- 
tacked with  greater  weakness  and  a  feeling  of  exhaus- 
tion, clearly  indicating  that  the  only  journey  he  was 
likely  to  make  was  from  this  life  to  eternity.  When  this 
fact  was  announced  to  him,  he  became  ecstatic  with  joy, 
and  so  continued  until  the  moment  of  his  death,  on  the 
2d  October,  1570.'-^ 

VII. 

The  notions  of  independence  inculcated  by  the  heretics 
tended  to  prolong  civil  war  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  and 
to  perpetuate  discord  among  Catholic  princes.  The  Turks 
had  attempted  to  profit  by  these  commotions  in  attack- 
ing the  European  coast,  but,  being  vigorously  repulsed 
by.  the  Knights  of  Malta,  they  were  compelled  to  return 
to  their  own  dominions,  and,  to  all  appearance,  had  given 
up  their  project  of  invasion,  when  suddenly  it  was  re- 
ported that  Selim  II  had  declared  his  intention  of  attack- 
ing the  States  of  the  Church  and  the  Republic  of  Venice. 
Pius  V,  far  from  being  alarmed  at  the  danger  with  which 
Catholic  States  were  menaced,  saw  in  the  very  fact  the 
means  of  reestablishing  peace  between  their  sovereigns. 
He  called  upon  them  to  rally  for  the  defense  of  the 
standard  of  the  Church — of  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ — 
quite  certain  that  each  and  every  one  of  them  would  be 
eager  to  accept  such  an  honor,  and  heartily  to  unite  in 
so  holy  a  cause. 

To  negotiate  an  alliance  of  such  vast  importance,  he 
selected  two  members  of  the  Sacred  College,  with  whose 
diplomatic  ability  he  was  woll  acquainted.  One  was  his 
own   nephew,  Cardinal  Alexandrini ;   the    other.  Cardinal 

*  M.  Cretineau  Joly  states  that  Father  Cabral  arrived  in  Japan  in 
1571.  This  is  evidently  an  error,  as  Father  Torrez  died  a  short  time 
after  his  arrival,  and  the  date  of  his  death  is  certainly  1570,  as  con- 
firmed by  Father  Charlevoix. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.  FRANCIS   BORGIA.  183 

Commendon,  who  had  the  reputation  of  great  learning 
and  wisdom.  The  two  Legates  were  duly  dispatched, 
the  former  to  the  Kings  of  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal, 
the  latter  to  the  King  of  Poland  and  the  sovereigns  of 
Germany. 

Cardinal  Commendon  represented  to  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff the  difficulties  of  such  a  mission,  and  begged,  as  a 
favor,  to  be  allowed  the  assistance  of  Father  Tolet,  a 
learned  Jesuit,  whose  wisdom  and  advice,  he  affirmed, 
would  be  most  useful  in  the  undertaking.  The  Pope,  ac- 
cordingly, asked  for  and  obtained  from  Francis  Borgia 
permission  for  the  learned  Father  to  accompany  the  Car- 
dinal in  his  important  mission.  Cardinal  Alexandrini  had 
higher  pretensions.  Father  Borgia,  being  closely  allied 
to  all  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  he  alone,  thought  the 
Cardinal,  could,  by  his  presence,  smooth  away  all  difficul- 
ties, and  favorably  dispose  the  Kings  of  Spain  and  Por- 
tusral.  He,  therefore,  asked  for  the  Father-General  as  his 
assistant  in  his  embassy.  The  Pope,  while  approving  of 
his  nephew's  project,  felt,  at  the  same  time,  a  delicacy  in 
making  it  known  to  the  quondam  Duke  of  Gandia.  The 
health  of  this  illustrious  personage  was  visibly  declining, 
and  he  was  entirely  absorbed  in  the  cares  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  society;  but,  nevertheless,  after  having  care- 
fully reflected  on  the  matter,  and  begged  of  Almighty 
God  to  enlighten  him,  Pius  V  sent  for  Francis  Borgia, 
to  whom  he  communicated  the  desire  of  Cardinal  Alex- 
andrini. 

The  holy  religious  was  dying,  but,  at  the  command  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  who  addressed  him  in  the  interest 
of  the  Church,  Francis  Borgia,  ever  unmindful  of  himself, 
did  not  hesitate  to  undertake  and  brave  the  fatigues  of  the 
journey,  and  the  difficulties  attending  a  mission  of  so 
much  importance  and  of  so  delicate  a  nature.  He  left 
Rome  on  the  30th  June,  1571,  with  the  Cardinal  Legate, 


184  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

in  company  of  a  brilliant  retinue  of  prelates  and  noble- 
men. At  the  same  time,  Father  Tolet  took  his  departure, 
with  Cardinal  Commendon,  for  the  several  courts  of  the 
north. 

The  public  mind  in  Germany  was  duly  prepared  by  the 
Jesuits  to  receive,  with  becoming  respect,  the  Apostolic 
Nuncio,  who  was  about  to  appeal  to  their  faith  and  courage 
in  the  interests  of  religion.  But  heresy  still  had  several 
supporters  among  the  electors,  and  it  used  all  its  endeavors 
to  impede  and  frustrate  the  objects  of  the  Pontifical  Em- 
bassy. Up  to  this  time,  all  the  eflforts  and  manoeuvres  of 
the  sectarians  against  the  Jesuits  had  only  served  to  in- 
crease their  triumph  and  extend  the  sphere  of  their  use- 
fulness. Protestantism  witnessed  new  colleges  and  houses 
of  the  society  springing  up  all  over  Germany,  and  it  be- 
came more  important  and  urgent  for  them  to  strike  a  de- 
cisive and  final  blow  against  this  chosen  body,  already  so 
celebrated  in  the  world,  and  which  they  regarded  as  their 
most  formidable  enemy. 

The  Electors  being  about  to  meet,  for  the  purpose  of 
discussing  the  alliance  proposed  by  the  Pope,  the  first 
aim  of  the  Protestants  was  to  prevent  such  an  alliance 
and  this  point  once  attained,  it  would  be  easy,  during  the 
session  of  the  Diet,  to  procure  an  order  for  the  expulsion 
of  the  Jesuits  from  all  the  German  States.  But  the 
princes  who  espoused  the  Protestant  cause  failed,  most 
essentially,  from  the  very  first.  When  one  of  them  made 
a  proposition  to  banish  the  Jesuits,  Maximilian  of  x\us- 
tria,  casting  upon  him  a  glance  full  of  fiery  indignation, 
exclaimed: 

"  My  duty  is  to  fight  the  Turks,  not  to  persecute  the 
Jesuits." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  nobles  in  Bohemia,  the  subject 
of  the  alliance  of  princes  caused  a  similar  proposition 
against  the  Jesuits  to  be  introduced,  and  the  Burgrave, 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.  FRANCIS    BORGIA.  185 

John  Lebkowitz,  after  having  vigorously  and  gallantly 
scouted  and  repelled  the  idea,  added  these  remarkable 
words,  which  history  has  preserved:  "Oh!  had  the  Soci- 
ety of  Jesus  been  instituted  two  centuries  sooner,  and  had 
it  penetrated  into  our  Bohemia,  we  should  not  to-day 
know  what  heresy  is  !  " 

The  Lutherans  thus  obtained  nothing  by  their  strategy 
but  an  increase  of  favor  for  the  Order  whose  destruction 
they  sought ;  and  there  was  every  room  to  hope  for  the 
success  of  a  negotiation  which  met  the  full  support  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  in  which  Father  Tolet  was  officially  en- 
gaged. This  mission,  in  fact,  met  with  all  the  success 
that  could  be  desired.  All  the  Catholic  princes  entered 
into  the  alliance  proposed  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  for 
the  defense  of  the  Church  and  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ 
against  the  Infidels  and  the  Crescent  of  Mohammed. 

On  the  other  hand,  Francis  Borgia  arrived  at  Barcelona, 
with  Cardinal  Alexandrini  and  his  suite,  on  the  30th 
of  August  of  the  same  year,  1571.  On  setting  foot  upon 
his  native  land,  Francis  Borgia  was  received  by  his  eldest 
son,  Don  Carlos  de  Borgia,  Duke  of  Gandia,  who  was 
sent  officially,  by  his  sovereign,  to  receive  him,  and  to  de- 
liver to  him  a  letter,  in  which  the  King  expressed  to  the 
holy  religious  his  entire  satisfaction  in  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff's  having  chosen  him  to  accompany  the  Legate, 
adding  : 

"  I  feel  great  joy  when  I  think  that,  before  long,  we 
shall  embrace  each  other.  Those  who  have  been  intimate 
from  childhood  are  always  happy  to  meet." 

Indeed,  the  Kins:  received  him  as  the  friend  of  his 
youth,  and  Francis  Borgia  profited  by  the  benevolent  and 
confiding  disposition  of  his  royal  relation  to  advance  the 
interests  of  the  Church.  Having  obtained  the  King's 
promise  to  join  the  alliance  of  Catholic  sovereigns,  he 
referred   to  another   topic — that  of  the  obstacles  offered 


186  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

by  the  Viceroy  of  Naples  and  Sicily  to  the  reforms  which 
the  holy  Archbishop  of  Milan,  Charles  Borromeo,  sought 
to  effect  in  his  diocese.  Until  then  the  King  had  been 
blind  to  the  conduct  of  the  Viceroy ;  but  the  General  of 
the  Jesuits  pointed  out  to  His  Majesty,  so  clearly  and 
forcibly,  all  that  was  disadvantageous  to  the  people  in  the 
difficulties  between  their  sovereigns  and  the  Roman  court, 
that  Philip  promised  to  apply  a  prompt  remedy  against 
this  abuse  of  power. 

Having   accomplished    their    mission    to    the   King   of 
Spain,  the  legation  proceeded  to  Portugal. 

The  embassy  of  the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
to  the  young  King  Sebastian  was  the  more  difficult  and 
delicate,  as  the  minds  of  those  around  him,  particularly 
in  his  council,  were  more  divided  upon  the  subject  of 
the  Jesuits.  The  Fathers  were  accused  of  encouraging 
Sebastian  in  his  martial  predilections,  and  the  General 
of  their  Order  came  to  propose  to  the  King  to  engage 
in  a  European  war.  They -were  charged  with  dissuading 
him  from  entering  into  an  alliance  with  the  House  of 
Austria,  and  the  General  had  come  to  induce  their  sov- 
ereign to  marry  a  French  princess.  Humanly  speaking, 
the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Portugal  was  playing  a  dangerous 
game ;  but  worldly  views  were  not  allowed  to  influence 
the  actions  of  St.  Francis  Borgia,  nor  those  of  St.  Pius 
V,  whom  he  obeyed. 

At  the  first  mention  of  the  Catholic  crusade  against 
the  Turks,  King  Sebastian  exclaimed  that  he  would  go, 
in  person,  at  the  head  of  his  army  ;  and  when  the  Holy 
General  expressed  to  him  the  desire  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  to  see  him  allied  to  the  House  of  France,  this 
young  prince — he  was  but  seventeen — forgetting  his  strong 
and  constant  opposition  to  such  a  match,  promised  to 
espouse  Margaret  of  Valois. 

While  the  Cardinal  Legate  and  Francis  Borgia  carried 


GENERALSHIP    OF    ST.   FRANCIS    BORGIA.  187 

on  these  important  negotiations  at  the  Portuguese  court, 
Philip  II  commanded  Don  Juan  of  Austria  to  assemble 
the  allied  squadrons  at  Messina,  and  thence  proceed 
against  the  Turks. 

Andrew  Doria,  Admiral  Barbarlgo,  a  Venetian,  the 
Marquis  of  Santa  Cruz,  and  Mark  Anthony  Colonna  held 
the  chief  commands  in  the  fleet.  Father  Murtino  Becin- 
gucci,  a  Jesuit,  embarked  on  the  flag-ship  of  Admiral 
Barbarigo,  Father  Juan  de  Montoya  accompanied  Ad- 
miral Santa  Cruz,  and  Father  Cristoval  Rodriguez  sailed, 
with  Don  Juan  of  Austria,  on  board  the  royal  galley. 
Several  other  Jesuits  were  distributed  among  the  remain- 
ing vessels  of  the  squadron,  and  some  Capuchin  Fathers 
were  attached  to  the  Pontifical  squadron. 

On  the  7th  of  October,  1571,  they  encountered  the 
enemy  in  the  Grulf  of  Lepanto,  and  immediately  engaged 
him.  The  result  was  decisive.  Admiral  Barbarigo  was 
mortally  wounded  while  standing  near  Father  Becingucci, 
who,  as  he  fell,  received  him  into  his  arms.  The  Turks 
lost  thirty  thousand  men  and  twenty  ships  on  that  mem- 
orable day,  the  brilliant  success  of  which  was  justly  at- 
tributed to  the  all-powerful  protection  of  the  holy  Queen 
of  Heaven.^ 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1572,  the  Legate  Alexandrini 
and  Francis  Borgia  arrived  at  Blois,  where  the  French 
court  then  was.  They  could  not  bring  their  double  mis- 
sion to  a  satisfactory  conclusion.  The  fear  of  irritating 
the  Protestants,  and  the  exactions  of  the  civil  war  which 
they  were  carrying  on,  prevented  the  King  from  joining 
the  alliance  of  the  other  Catholic  princes,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  Margaret  of  France  was  promised  to  Henry  of 
Beam,  as  a  pledge  of  peace  between  the  contending 
parties. 

*  The  Church  has  perpetuated  the  remembrance  of  this  great  vic- 
tory by  the  institution  of  the  Feast  of  Our  Lady  of  Victory. 
18 


188  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

The  Legate  was  preparing  to  set  out  for  Italy,  when  he 
received  orders  to  return  immediately  to  Rome.  Pius  Y 
was  dying,  and  he  had  already  gone  to  receive  the  reward 
of  his  eminent  virtues,  when  Francis  Borgia  reached  the 
Eternal  City,  after  a  voyage  the  fatigues  of  which  had 
completely  exhausted  his  strength.  He  very  soon  fol- 
lowed the  great  Pope,  who  was  succeeded  by  Cardinal 
Buoncompagno,  under  the  name  of  Gregory  XIII.  The 
holy  General  arrived  at  Borne  on  the  22d  of  September, 
1572,  and  expired  on  the  1st  of  October,  surrounded  by 
his  beloved  brethren.  The  last  words  he  uttered  were 
an  aspiration  for  the  peace  of  the  Church,  and  a  prayer 
for  the  Society  of  Jesus. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.    189 


FOURTH    GENERAL. 
iS-rS  — 1580. 

I. 

Civil  war  continued  to  rage  in  France.  No  sooner 
were  the  Calvinists  defeated  at  one  point  than  they  rose 
up  in  another,  gathered  their  scattered  forces,  and  attacked 
anew,  but  always  secretly  and  by  surprise,  the  towns,  vil- 
lages, and  feudal  strongholds.  They  tore  down  crosses, 
pillaged,  profaned,  and  burned  churches,  ransacked  and 
destroyed  castles  and  monasteries,  tortured  and  massacred 
the  inhabitants  who  had  remained  true  to  the  faith  of 
their  fathers,  and  gave  way  to  the  most  profligate  and 
odious  excesses.  And  this  they  called  "  establishing  the 
Reformation.^^ 

This  grievous  state  of  affairs  caused  the  Catholics  to  be 
mistrustful  and  ever  on  the  watch,  and  demanded,  on  the 
part  of  the  clergy,  an  extreme  prudence;  for  the  Hugue- 
nots had  their  spies  every-where,  even  in  private  families 
and  monasteries. 

One  day,  in  the  month  of  February,  1573,  three  priests, 
accompanied  by  a  layman,  all  habited  in  black,  were  trav- 
elling together  in  the  mountains  of  du  Quercy,  apparently 
unconscious  of  the  dangers  they  incurred,  for  they  had 
already  traversed,  unmolested,  a  considerable  extent  of 
country.     They  were  near  the  Chateau  de  Cardaillac,  and 


190  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

were  followins:  the  skirts  of  a  forest  of  chestnuts,  when,  all 
at  once,  they  were  surprised  by  the  sound  of  approaching 
footsteps,  and  the  cry  of  "  3Io7^t  aux  Papisf.es  !"  Q^ Death 
to  the  Catholics!")  which  resounded  throu^rh  the  woods. 
The  pious  travellers  were  in  the  midst  of  the  Huguenot 
soldiery,  who  had  suddenly  come  upon  them  from  an 
ambush.  The  chief  of  the  gang,  addressing  the  three 
priests,  demanded,  with  a  menacing  air,  who  they  were, 
whence  they  came,  and  whither  they  were  going.  Being 
persuaded  that  they  had  been  betrayed,  and  that  they 
could  afford  no  information  of  which  their  enemies  were 
not  already  in  possession,  the  priests  remained  silent, 

"  You  do  not  answer,"  continued  the  Calvinist.  "  You 
dare  not  say  that  you  are  Jesuits  !  " 

"We  belong,  indeed,  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,"  said  one 
of  the  three. 

"  Where  are  you  going  ?  " 

"To  Rome."  . 

"  They  are  going  to  Rome  to  conspire  against  us  and 
against  the  Reformation,"  exclaimed  the  Huguenot  chief, 
addressing  himself  to  his  men  ;  but  we  are  about  to  send 
them  somewhere  else  ;  and,  turning  again  toward  his  vic- 
tims, he  added  : 

"  We  are  going  to  send  you  to  the  other  world ;  the 
journey  will  be  shorter,  and  you  are  sure  not  to  be  again 
stopped  on  the  way." 

"Unless,"  said  another,  "  they  be  ransomed  by  a  hand- 
some sum.  If  we  were  well  paid,  we  might  spare  their 
lives," 

"  It  is  true,"  said  the  chief,  "  we  might  gain  more,  and 
it  matters  little  whether  there  are  three  Jesuits  more  or 
less  in  the  world.  We  ought  to  be  able  to  exterminate 
them  all." 

The  victims  raised  their  hearts  to  God,  and  calmly 
awaited  the  decision  of  their  persecutors.     The  delibera- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.  191 

tion  was  long,  but  concluded  in  the  proposition  for  ransom. 
They  mentioned  a  sum  to  the  prisoners. 

"  We  do  not  estimate  our  lives  so  high,"  answered  they; 
"we  prefer  death!  " 

"  Oh  !  it  is  death  you  desire  !  Very  well,  you  shall 
have  it;  but  not  without  purchase,  and  you  shall  buy  it 
dearly." 

The  Reformer  accompanied  these  remarks  with  blows 
from  his  blunderbuss,  knocking  down  and  cruelly  ill-treat- 
ing his  victims.  The  three  Fathers  were  Gil  Gonzales, 
Provincial  of  Castile,  Martino  Guttierez,  and  Juan  Suarcz. 
Their  companion  was  a  lay  brother.  The  latter,  not  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  the  heretics,  profited  thereby,  and,  in 
obedience  to  a  sign  from  Father  Gonzales,  made  his  escape. 
This  was  the  only  means  they  had  of  informing  the  soci- 
ety of  the  circumstances  that  prevented  them  from  pro- 
ceeding to  Rome  to  attend  the  election  of  the  new  General, 
Shortly  after  this,  the  Jesuits  of  Lyons  ransomed  Gil 
Gonzales  and  Juan  Suarez,  the  latter  of  whom  was  dan- 
gerously wounded.  As  for  Martino  Guttierez,  he  had 
fallen  a  victim  to  the  cruel  treatment  he  had  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  heretics. 

The  General  Congregation  for  the  election  of  the  fourth 
General  of  the  society  was  held  on  the  12th  April,  1573, 
and,  on  the  day  following.  Father  Everard  Mercurian,  a 
Belgian,  sixty-eight  years  of  age,  was  proclaimed  General 
by  a  majority  of  twenty-seven  votes.  To  a  vigorous  in- 
telligence he  united  rare  prudence  and  unexampled  gen- 
tleness. The  change  of  Generals  inspired  new  hopes  in 
the  heretics,  the  more  so  as  there  had  also  been  a  change 
in  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church.  Notwithstanding 
their  wily  intrigues,  they  had  been  unable  to  injure  the 
Jesuits  in  the  opinion  of  Pius  V,  and  they  attributed  their 
want  of  success  to  the  former  Duke  of  Gandia.  The 
present  General  of  the  society,  not  being  of  royal  de- 
18* 


192  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

scent,  the  Protestants  trusted  to  their  ingenuity  in  work- 
ing more  easily  upon  the  credulity  of  Gregory  XIII. 
They  accordingly  set  about  with  renewed  ardor,  plying 
the  numerous  machinations  which  they  had  at  hand. 

No  sooner  had  the  news  of  the  election  of  Father  Mer- 
curian  been  received  in  Germany,  than  there  was  exhibited 
in  the  principal  cities  of  that  vast  empire  the  most  de- 
termined opposition  against  the  Jesuit  colleges.  The  peo- 
ple became  alarmed  and  their  rulers  surprised  at  this 
movement.  Confidence  was  shaken,  and  the  Emperor,  in 
his  weakness,  yielding  to  the  pressure,  issued  a  decree  pro- 
hibiting the  Jesuits  from  conferring  academical  degrees, 
employing  the  same  text-books  as  those  in  use  in  the  Uni- 
versity, or  even  from  teaching  at  the  same  hours.  The 
University  always  sided  with  heresy  when  there  was  ques- 
tion of  injuring  or  opposing  the  Jesuits.  Father  Maggio, 
Provincial  of  Germany,  while  at  Rome,  hearing  of  this 
uprising  against  the  society,  hastened  to  Vienna,  where  he 
sought  an  audience  of  the  Emperor,  and  succeeded  in  con- 
vincino;  him  of  his  error  and  obtaining  the  annulment  of 
the  decree.  The  Protestants  vowed  to  be  avenged  of  this 
check  at  Innspruck ;  but  there,  again,  truth  triumphed 
over  falsehood. 

No  matter  how  great  the  zeal  of  the  adversaries  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  they  could  no  longer  hope  that,  their 
calumnies,  the  aim  of  which  had  been  so  fully  exposed, 
would  ever  be  seriously  listened  to  in  Rome.  Gregory 
Xltl  even  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  give  the  Jesuits  a  last- 
ing proof  of  his  entire  confidence,  which  he  did  by  ad- 
dressing a  brief  to  Father  Canisius,  in  which,  investing 
him  with  the  title  of  Legate,  he  commanded  him  to  re- 
pair to  the  respective  courts  of  Austria,  Bavaria,  and 
Saltzburg.  "  I  make  choice  of  you,"  wrote  His  Holi- 
ness, "  because  I  know  how  useful  your  wisdom  and  ability 
may   be    on    this   occasion    and    under    existing    circum- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.     193 

stances."  This  mission  accomplished,  Cardinal  Muroni 
requested  that  Father  Canisius  might  be  allowed  to  ac- 
company him  to  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  and  the  Bishop 
of  Brescia  subsequently  begged  that  he  would,  in  like 
manner,  go  with  him  to  Nuremberg. 

The  more  the  Jesuits  sought  to  escape  honors,  the  more 
they  found  them  thrust  upon  them.  While  their  enemies 
used  all  their  exertions  to  ruin  them,  Providence  ever 
placed  them  in  positions  where  they  were  sure  to  be  honored 
and  admired.  At  the  request  of  Queen  Catharine,  Father 
Anthony  Possevin  was  sent  to  the  court  of  Sweden,  in  the 
capacity  of  Legate  of  the  Holy  See,  in  order  to  demonstrate 
to  King  John  III  the  impossibility  of  according  him  the 
concessions  he  sought  as  the  condition  of  his  return  to  the 
Catholic  Church  ;  and  the  Jesuit  succeeded  in  obtaining 
from  His  Majesty  greater  freedom  for  the  exercise  and  for 
the  propagation  of  Catholicity  in  his  states. 

II. 

Louis  de  Requesens,  Governor  of  the  Netherlands,  had 
just  died,  and  no  sooner  was  the  fact  known,  than  the  re- 
port spread  that  Philip  II,  King  of  Spain,  had  appointed 
as  his  successor  the  young  conqueror  of  Lepanto,  Don  Juan 
of  Austria.  One  day,  in  the  early  part  of  1576,  a  sudden 
excitement  was  manifested  in  the  city  of  Antwerp.  Every 
one  was  on  the  tiptoe  of  anxiety  and  expectation,  for  the 
news  which  was  in  circulation  was  so  extraordinary  that  the 
most  credulous  could  not  believe  it.  The  people  collected 
in  the  streets  in  groups,  public  business  was  suspended,  and 
personal  aifairs  forgotten. 

"Who  would  ever  have  suspected  the  Jesuits  of  such 
treason?"  said  the  people,  as  they  met  each  other. 

"  Is  it,  then,  really  true  ?     I  would  not  have  believed  it." 

"  Is  it  true  ?  It  is,  alas  !  but  too  true.  The  college  is 
nothing  better  than  an  arsenal.     They  have  secreted  there 


194  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

arms  and  ammunition  sufficient  for  an  entire  army,  and 
they  shelter  and  conceal  in  their  house  every  traitor  who 
applies  and  gives  the  pass-word." 

"Only  think.  Who  would  have  suspected  such  a  thing, 
to  hear  them  preach,  and  to  see  them  so  good,  so  mild,  so 
charitable  ?     I  took  them  for  perfect  saints." 

"  And  so  did  I.  But  it  is  clearly  proved  that  they  are 
the  veriest  hypocrites,  and  that  there  is  not  one  of  them 
who  is  not  capable  of  any  thing.  It  is  all  discovered  now. 
Every  one  knows  of  the  conspiracy  ;  and  the  people  are 
even  now  about  to  attack  the  college,  in  order  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  arms  and  ammunition  there  concealed,  and 
all  else  they  may  discover." 

In  fact,  at  this  moment,  the  people,  ever  too  credulous, 
were  actually  attacking  the  house  of  the  Fathers.  They 
broke  the  windows,  and  endeavoured  to  force  open  the 
doors,  with  the  intention  of  setting  the  house  on  fire  ;  but, 
fortunately,  the  Governor  of  the  city,  Frederick  Perrenot, 
the  Margrave  Gossvin,  and  Otho  Count  Herbenstein  came 
up  at  the  critical  moment,  and  succeeded  in  quelling  the 
tumult.  On  the  same  day,  and  at  the  very  hour,  similar 
scenes  were  beinor  enacted  at  Liesre.  The  Protestants  were 
aware  that  Don  Juan  of  Austria  was  sincerely  attached  to 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  they  took  advantage  of  the  inter- 
regnum to  calumniate  the  society  and  arouse  the  anger 
of  the  people,  thus  destroying  all  the  good  that  had  been 
accomplished  by  the  zeal  and  labors  of  these  apostles. 

Don  Juan  of  Austria,  on  coming  to  assume  the  reins 
of  government,  was  duly  informed  of  the  intrigues  of  the 
Protestants  against  the  Jesuits,  and  hoped,  by  severely 
punishing  the  disturbers,  to  secure  for  the  society  that  re- 
spect to  which  they  were  so  justly  entitled.  The  Pro- 
vincial of  Belgium,  Father  Baudoin  de  I'Ange,  on  the 
contrary,  was  in  favor  of  a  different  course,  and  entreated 
Don  Juan  to  seek  to  calm  the  public  mind  by  showing 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD   MERCURIAN.    195 

clemency,  instead  of  still  further  irritating  it  by  the  use 
of  severe  measures.  The  prince  yielded  to  the  charitable 
counsels  of  the  Father,  who  avenged  himself,  as  the  Jes- 
uits usually  did,  by  returning  good  for  evil. 

But  Don  Juan  could  not  continue  in  this  scheme  of 
conciliation.  Heresy  soon  openly  declared  itself  on  all 
sides,  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  approaching  with  his 
forces  to  aid  the  Protestants  in  their  revolt.  The  coun- 
try was  devastated,  churches  profaned,  and  the  houses 
plundered  by  the  heretical  bands,  and  it  therefore  became 
absolutely  necessary  to  oppose  force  to  force.  On  the 
31st  December,  1577,  Don  Juan  gained  a  victory  at  Gera- 
bloux.  The  states  appeared  to  submit,  and,  on  the  21st 
April,  1578,  they  published,  at  Antwerp,  the  peace  of 
Ghent,  exacting,  at  the  same  time,  from  the  citizens  an 
oath,  to  which  the  Jesuits  refused  to  subscribe.  This 
oath  appeared  to  them  a  trap  especially  laid  for  the  Gov- 
ernor-General, and  they  wished  to  remain  faithful  to  their 
prince.  They  were  alternately  threatened  and  flattered. 
Indeed,  nothing  was  left  undone  to  remove  their  opposi- 
tion; but  they  remained  firm  in  their  determination,  and 
on  the  18th  of  May  they  were  expelled  the  town,  placed 
on  board  a  boat  on  the  Scheldt,  and  landed  at  Mechlin  ; 
but  Don  Juan  immediately  ordered  them  back  to  Lou- 
vain.  Bruges  and  Tournay  were  under  the  dominion  of 
the  Protestants,  and  from  both  these  towns  the  Jesuits 
were  expelled  with  the  like  violence;  while  at  Douay  they 
were  ordered  by  the  Senate  to  remove  to  some  other  place, 
when  the  Rector  of  the  University  obtained  the  revocation 
of  this  order.* 

Louvain  aiForded  an  asylum  to  all  the  Fathers  who  had 

*  Ranke,  in  his  History  of  the  Popes,  says  :  "  They  found  them- 
selves compelled  to  leave  Douay,  and,  although  they  returned  in 
eight  days,  it  was,  nevertheless,  a  triumph."  A  great  triumph, 
truly,  for  hereay  ! 


196  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

been  expelled  from  the  heretical  towns  until  better  times 
should  arrive.  This,  like  the  other  large  cities  of  the 
Netherlands,  had  had  its  civil  war,  and  it  paid  the  usual 
penalty — the  plague — which  so  generally  follows  such 
unnatural  bloodshed.  As  heretofore,  with  that  devoted- 
ness  and  self-denial  which  ever  marked  the  conduct  of 
the  Jesuits,  they  hastened  to  the  assistance  of  the  plague- 
stricken  people.  Fathers  Usmar  Boysson,  John  of  Har- 
lem, Anthony  Salazar,  and  Elisha  Heivod  fell  victims  to 
the  pestilence  while  in  the  discharge  of  Christian  charity. 
Their  deaths  did  but  strengthen  the  zeal  and  animate  the 
ardor  of  their  brethren,  and,  soon  after,  Fathers  Nicholas 
Minutier,  Baudouin  Hangart,  James  d'Ast,  Arnold  Ha- 
sius,  Andrew  Boccaci,  Beinier,  Rector  of  the  College  of 
Louvain,  and  Brother  Louis,  in  like'  manner,  became  vic- 
tims of  the  same  visitation,  either  at  Louvain  or  Douay, 
Liege  or  Brussels.  The  Protestants  did  not  expose  them- 
selves to  a  like  glorious  death,  but  had,  from  prudential 
motives,  removed  from  the  scene  of  danger.  The  rich 
fled ;  the  ministers  imitated  their  example. 

On  the  1st  of  October,  in  the  same  year,  Don  Juan  of 
Austria  breathed  his  last,  at  a  village  near  Namur,  in  the 
thirty-third  year  of  his  age.  Alexander  Farnese,  Duke 
of  Parma,  succeeded  him  in  the  government  of  the  Neth- 
erlands, and  was  equally  favorable  to  the  society.  Scarcely 
a  year  had  elapsed,  when  the  Jesuits  were  reinstated  in 
the  colleges  and  houses  which  they  had  been  compelled 
to  abandon  by  the  heretics. 

The  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Louvain,  Michael 
Bay,  who,  as  was  common  in  those  days,  had  Latinized 
his  name,  by  calling  himself  Baius,  had  published  a  work, 
portions  of  which  had  been  condemned,  not  only  at  Rome, 
but  also  at  Paris,  by  the  Sorbonne.  The  author  appar- 
ently acknowledged  his  errors,  but,  at  the  same  time,  the 
doctrines  which  he  continued  to  'inculcate  were  identical 


GENERALSnir  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.    197 

with  those  published  propositions  which  had  called  forth 
the  condeuHKition  of  the  Church.  Father  Robert  Bellar- 
mine  was,  consequently,  sent  to  Louvain,  for  the  purpose 
of  refuting  these  erroneous  teachings.  The  Jesuit,  not 
wishing  to  irritate  his  adversary  by  an  open  attack,  con- 
tented himself  with  sedulously  inculcating  the  truth. 
Baius  had  created  for  himself  a  considerable  party,  which 
was  able  to  appreciate  the  considerate  method  of  refuta- 
tion adopted  by  Bellarmine,  and  the  Chancellor  himself, 
silenced  by  the  delicacy  of  his  adversary,  felt  himself  con- 
strained to  desist  from  his  dangerous  teachings.  This 
was  a  real  triumph  of  truth  over  error ;  but.  Father  Bel- 
larmine having  been  recalled  to  Bome,  Baius  resumed  the 
promulgation  of  his  false  and  erroneous  doctrines.  He 
was  immediately  courted  by  the  Protestants,  who  flattered, 
applauded,  and  encouraged  him.  The  Court  of  Bome  was 
advised  of  the  danger  which  threatened  the  faith  from  the 
Chancellor's  teachings,  and  Father  Tolet  went  to  Louvain, 
by  the  directions  of  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain,  who 
was  also  sovereign  of  the  Netherlands.  Being  vested  with 
full  authority,  he  could  at  pleasure  excommunicate  this 
already  half-corrupted  member,  but  he  preferred  to  un- 
dertake the  eradication  of  the  disease.  He  set  about  his 
important  work  with  so  much  zeal  and  delicate  charity, 
that  the  erring  Chancellor,  touched  by  the  grace  which 
the  inspired  eloquence  of  the  Jesuit  had  infused  into  his 
soul,  openly  acknowledged  his  defeat,  and,  on  the  24th 
March,  1580,  in  presence  of  the  fjiculties  assembled  at 
the  house  of  Father  Tolet,  retracted  and  condemned  all 
the  propositions  put  forth  in  his  works  which  had  been 
censured  by  the  Holy  See.  Those  professors  and  stu- 
dents who  had  adopted  these  erroneous  doctrines,  in  like 
manner,  signed  their  retraction,  which  Father  Tolet  lost 
no  time  in  laying  at  the  feet  of  the  Holy  Father. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  had  achieved  a  victory  which  its 


198  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

enemies  would  never  forgive.     Shortly  afterward  the  Duke 
of  Parma,  Alexander  Farnese,  thus  wrote  to  Philip  II : 

"Sire:  Your  Majesty  desired  that  I  should  cause  a  fortress  to 
be  built  at  Maastricht;  but  I  thought  that  a  college  of  the  Jesuits 
would  be  a  more  suitable  defense  for  the  inhabitants  against  the 
enemies  of  the  altar  and  the  throne.     I  have,  therefore,  built  it." 

In  France,  where  the  Parliament  and  the  University 
ever  opposed  their  powerful  influence  to  it,  the  society 
again  won  a  triumph,  which  the  Protestants  could  neither 
forget  nor  pardon.  In  1577  the  plague  made  its  appear- 
ance once  more  in  the  southern  provinces — a  sad  result 
of  civil  war.  The  Jesuits,  after  losing  twelve  of  their 
number,  while  devoting  themselves  with  the  most  admirable 
self-devotion  to  the  alleviation  of  the  sufferers,  only  be- 
came the  more  zealous  in  their  devotion  to  the  assistance 
of  the  plague-stricken  people.  At  Toulouse,  among  the 
other  victims,  a  celebrated  apostate  was  attacked  by  the 
scourge,  and  was  about  to  appear  before  his  Eternal  Judge. 
His  name  was  John  de  Montluc,  a  Dominican,  once  Bishop 
of  Valence,  who  had  turned  Huguenot.  Sixteen  times 
had  he  served  his  sovereign  in  the  capacity  of  ambassa- 
dor. He  was  now  dying,  and  had  no  thought  of  becom- 
ing reconciled  to  God  and  to  the  Church  which  he  had 
abandoned.  This  was  a  great  triumph  for  heresy,  and 
already  was  hell  rejoicing  in  anticipation  of  the  victim  it 
was  about  to  claim  for  all  eternity.  But  the  Jesuits 
prayed  for  that  apostate  soul,  who,  during  life,  had  been 
their  enemy.  Father  Grandjean  went  to  the  death-bed  of 
the  unhappy  man,  over  whom  he  tenderly  bent,  called 
him  his  brother,  addressed  to  him  such  gentle  and  tender 
words  that,  to  the  dying  apostate,  they  seemed  a  message 
of  hope  descending  from  heaven  itself,  and  which,  touch- 
ing his  heart,  caused  him  to  shed  tears.  The  Father  pressed 
him  to  his  heart,  again  breathing  into  his  ear  words  of  hope 


QENERALSIIIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.    190 

and  forgiveness,  till,  at  length,  the  apostate  acknowledged 
bis  great  guilt,  and,  with  tears  of  repentance  and  hope, 
sincerely  implored  the  Divine  mercy.  The  Jesuit  received 
his  recantation,  reconciled  him  to  the  Church,  and  con- 
tinued by  his  side,  affording  him  spiritual  consolation  up 
to  the  last  moment,  and  only  left  him  after  he  had  seen 
him  depart  this  world  a  holy  penitent.  So  many  and  such 
admirable  virtues  could  not  but  command  respect  and 
veneration,  and  call  forth  feelings  of  gratitude  and  a  de- 
sire to  see  the  society  spread  every-where. 

In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  Parliament,  which  was 
opposed  to  it,  in  consequence  of  its  submission  to  all 
legitimate  authority,  and  notwithstanding  the  hostility  of 
the  University,  which  rejected  it  on  account  of  its  learn- 
ing, and  the  purity  of  its  doctrines,  the  Jesuit  Order  was 
eagerly  invited  to  found  houses  in  all  the  towns  of  France, 
and  Lorraine  even  offered  to  furnish  it  with  the  neces- 
sary establishments.  Throughout  Spain  it  prospered  un- 
molested, as  it  did  likewise  in  Portugal,  notwithstanding 
the  petty  intrigues  of  the  courtiers. 

In  Lombardy,  where  Charles  Borromeo  had  caused  the 
Jesuits  to  settle,  they  obtained  the  most  satisfactory  suc- 
cess. It  had  been  the  desire  of  the  holy  Archbishop  to 
have  in  his  diocese  colleges,  a  novitiate,  and  a  professed 
house  of  the  society.  His  confessor,  Father  Adorno,  was 
a  Jesuit,  and,  in  his  pastoral  visitations,  he  was  always  ac- 
companied by  Father  Leonti.  He  loved  the  Jesuits  as 
his  spiritual  fathers,  and,  before  his  death,  gave  them  a 
touching  proof  of  his  affection.  He  de§ired  to  celebrate 
the  holy  mysteries  for  the  last  time  in  his  native  city, 
Arona.  His  nephew.  Count  Renato  Borromeo,  occupied 
the  family  mansion  in  that  town,  and  he  entreated  the 
Cardinal  to  sanctify,  by  his  presence,  the  dwelling  which 
had  been  the  cradle  of  his  childhood. 

*'No,  my  dear  Renato,"   replied   the   saint,   "I  am  in 
19 


200  HISTORY    OP    THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

too  much  need  of  spiritual  consolation  not  to  go  where  I  ara 
sure  of  finding  it  in  abundance;"  and  he  proceeded  direct 
to  the  house  of  the  Jesuits,  and  there,  in  their  church, 
he  offered  up  the  holy  sacrifice  for  the  last  time  as  he 
had  said  his  first  mass  in  the  church  of  the  Jesuits,  the 
Gesu^  at  Rome.  Returning  to  Milan,  he  died  in  the  arms 
of  Father  Adorno,  on  the  1st  November,  1584. 

IIT. 

Among  the  courtiers  of  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England 
was  the  youthful  Thomas  Pound.  By  his  grace  and  ele- 
gance, he  had  attracted  the  especial  attention  of  the  Queen, 
and  he  consequentl}^  enjoyed  more  than  an  ordinary  share 
of  the  royal  favor,  in  the  possession  of  which  he  was 
happy  and  proud.  Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1573, 
at  one  of  the  court  balls,  Pound,  making  a  false  step, 
slipped  down  in  the  presence  of  Her  Majesty.  A  sar- 
castic remark,  uttered  by  the  royal  lips,  wounded  the 
vanity  of  the  young  courtier.  In  that  moment  he  per- 
ceived the  cruelty  that  lurked  in  the  bosom  of  the  woman 
whose  smile  had  such  a  strong  attraction  for  many.  He 
recalled  to  mind  all  the  martyrs  she  had  made  of  those 
of  her  subjects  who  remained  faithful  to  the  religion  of 
their  fathers,  and  his  soul  was  enlifjhtened.  He  had  sfone 
to  the  ball  a  Protestant;  he  left  it  at  heart  a  Catholic. 
From  that  very  day  he  undertook  to  defend  the  unhappy 
victims  of  the  Queen,  before  his  near  relative,  the  Earl  of 
Southampton,  and  he  rendered  all  the  assistance  and  con- 
solation in  his  power  to  the  Catholic  prisoners,  and  the 
more  he  discharged  this  duty,  the  more  was  he  suspected 
by  the  spies  of  Elizabeth.  He  was  aware  of  this ;  but  he 
had  renounced  the  Anglican  Reformation,  professed  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  was  prepared  to  submit  to 
the  consequences  of  his  belief.  Nor  had  he  long  to  wait, 
for,  in  his  turn,  he,  toQ,  was  imprisoned. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER   EVKUARD  MEROURIAN.    201 

During  his  confinement  in  the  Tower  of  London,  he  re- 
called all  that  he  had  witnessed  of  the  sad  fate  of  Catho- 
lics in  the  three  kingdoms.  lie  well  knew  the  zeal  and 
abnegation  with  which  several  Jesuits,  at  the  peril  of 
their  lives,  had  devoted  themselves  to  afford  the  consola- 
tions of  their  ministry  to  the  heroic  victims.  He  knew, 
also,  that  the  very  last,  Father  Hay,  after  being  for  a  long 
time  tracked  by  the  agents  of  the  Queen,  had  been  com- 
pelled to  fly,  in  order  not  to  compromise  those  whom  he 
had  come  to  console  and  bless.  He  was  aware  that  Eliza- 
beth had  decreed  that  all  the  Jesuits  who  set  foot  on 
British  soil  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  high  treason,  and 
dealt  with  accordingly.  All  these  recollections  of  events, 
which  had  occurred  so  recently,  appealed,  most  eloquently 
and  strongly,  to  the  heart  of  the  young  prisoner;  but  Di- 
vine Grace  spoke  in  still  more  forcible  language  to  his 
soul,  nor  could  external  distractions  for  a  moment  smother 
that  gentle  though  powerful  voice,  to  the  holy  influence 
of  which  he  freely  opened  his  heart. 

Our  young  hero  was  occasionally  visited  in  his  solitary 
retreat  by  a  namesake,  Thomas  Stevens,  a  fervent  Cath- 
olic. Thomas  Pound  requested  him  to  write  to  the  Gen- 
eral of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  begging  that  he  would  ad- 
mit him  into  the  Order,  although  he  had  no  opportunity 
of  joining  a  novitiate,  in  which  he  might  prepare  himself 
for  entering  upon  a  religious  life,  and  stating  that  his  only 
recommendation  was  his  suffering  imprisonment  for  the 
cause  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  ''Tell  him,"  added 
he,  "that  I  love  the  Society  of  Jesus,  without  being  ac- 
quainted with  its  rules.  I  know  its  character  only  by 
reputation,  and,  nevertheless,  I  feel  such  an  ardent  desire 
to  belong  to  it,  that  T  conjure  him  to  adopt  me  as  one  of 
its  children." 

For  nearly  three  years  Father  Mercurian,  by  contin- 
ued suspense,  tested  the  vocation  of  Thomas  Pound,  and, 


202  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESTJS. 

finding  him  ever  patient,  f\uthful,  and  ardently  longing 
to  be  admitted  into  the  society,  wrote  to  him,  on  De- 
cember 1,  1578,  announcing  the  fact  of  his  admittance, 
and  concluding  his  letter  by  these  significant  words : 
*'  Prepare  to  sufi'er,  and,  if  necessary,  to  die  upon  the 
cross." 

Elizabeth  had  little  thought  that,  in  making  usu  of  the 
youthful  Pound  to  gratify  her  whims,  she  was  converting 
him  into  a  Catholic  apostle ;  and  when  she  heard  how  he 
had  already  exercised  his  zeal  in  prison,  and  that  he  was 
the  consolation  and  support  of  his  fellow-captives,  she 
directed  that  he  should  be  interrogated  again,  and  that, 
if  he  persisted  in  his  adherence  to  the  faith  of  the  Pa- 
pists, he  should  not  be  spared  the  most  rigorous  treatment. 
Her  orders  were  strictly  obeyed.  While  before  his  judges, 
Thomas  felt  his  fortitude  increase,  and  he  defended  the 
faith  of  the  Church  with  a  vehemence  and  courage 
which  irritated  them,  and  for  which  they  determined  he 
should  fully  atone.  Pound  was  high-born,  therefore 
should  he  be  humbled.  He  was  condemned  to  traverse 
the  streets  of  London  in  irons,  and  was  led  from  place  to 
place  like  a  common  felon,  being  pointed  out  to  the  peo- 
pie  as  an  object  of  curiosity  and  derision.  But  his  cour- 
age never  failed  him.  He  bowed  to  the  mob  who  derided 
and  insulted  him,  and  his  calm  and  benign  countenance 
bore  the  impress  of  the  purity  and  peace  of  his  soul. 
After  being  thus  paraded,  he  was  conveyed  to  the  prison 
of  Newgate,  and  handed  over  to  the  executioners,  who 
awaited  him.  He  was  then  submitted  to  the  torture  des- 
ignated by  the  Protestants  "  the  widow's  alms.''  Thomas 
steadfastly  declared  his  attachment  to  the  Church  of 
Kome,  in  the  bosom  of  which  he  was  determined  to  live 
and  die  ;  and  such  was  his  patience,  under  the  horrible 
tortures  to  which  he  was  subjected,  that  he  tired  out  the 
cruelty   of  his   inhuman    tormentors.      In   the   event  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER   EVERARD   MERCURIAN.    203 

punishment  failing,  Elizabeth  had  commanded  that  kind- 
ness and  promises  should  be  employed,  for  she  wished  to 
subdue  the  quondam  courtier  whom  she  had  treated 
with  so  much  disdain.  But  the  courtier  had  become  a 
Jesuit.  He  was  supported  by  the  prayers  and  the  merits 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and,  by  those  prayers  and  those 
merits,  he  obtained  a  superabundance  of  grace,  which 
made  him  triumph  as  easily  over  allurements  and  prom- 
ises as  he  had  done  over  the  most  cruel  tortures.  He 
was  next  shut  up  in  a  dungeon,  and  his  captivity  appeared 
to  be  unendurable  ;  but,  so  far  from  repining,  he  thanked 
God  for  this  martyrdom.  He  prayed  for  his  persecutors, 
and  put  his  trust  in  Heaven.  The  proud  Elizabeth, 
chagrined  by  this  heroic  constancy,  had  him  again  inter- 
rogated, but  without  any  better  result,  when  he  was  re- 
moved to  another  prison,  from  which  he  was  soon  taken  to 
a  third,  until,  finally,  he  was  conveyed  back  to  the  Tower. 
The  persecutions  at  this  period  had  compelled  a  great 
many  Catholics  to  take  refuge  abroad.  A  college  had 
been  founded  at  Douay,  for  the  education  of  English 
youths  destined  for  the  priesthood,  and  who  thence  re- 
turned to  their  native  country,  to  exercise  their  apostle- 
ship,  in  spite  of  all  the  dangers  and  persecutions  with 
which  they  were  surrounded.  The  Queen  had  augmented 
the  number  of  her  spies;  the  coasts  were  closely  guarded, 
and  executioners  were  ever  at  hand  to  put  to  death  such 
Catholics  as  had  the  temerity  to  set  foot  upon  English 
soil.  But  as,  notwithstanding  this  rigorous  persecution, 
some  succeeded,  from  time  to  time,  in  entering  the  coun- 
try, the  attention  of  the  heretics  of  Flanders  was  directed 
to  the  college  of  Douay,  and  the  promise  of  a  rich  re- 
ward held  out  to  such  as  would  take  part  in  its  destruc- 
tion. The  college  was,  of  course,  attacked,  pillaged,  and 
destroyed  by  the  heretics.  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  Arch- 
bishop of  Rheims,  oflfered  hospitality  to  the  English  who 
19* 


204  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

had  thus  been  driven  away  from  their  abode,  and  Greg- 
ory XIII  founded  a  college  for  them  at  Rome.  The 
number  of  the  fugitives  was  sufficient  to  furnish  students 
for  these  two  establishments. 

On  the  23d  of  April,  the  fifty  pupils  of  the  college  of 
Rome  many  of  whom  were  already  in  holy  orders,  re- 
solved to  embrace  an  ecclesiastical  life,  and  devote  them- 
selves to  the  service  of  God  and  the  Church  in  their  own 
country.  Gregory  XIII  intrusted  the  direction  of  these 
young  Levites  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  who  also  had  the 
direction  of  the  college  of  Rheims.  The  Jesuits  did  not 
conceal  from  their  pupils  any  of  the  sufferings  prepared 
for  Catholic  priests  who  ventured  into  England.  They 
spoke  to  them  in  plain  terms  of  the  torture  of  the  rack, 
the  application  of  the  thumb-screw,  the  boiling  oil,  the 
stake,  hunger  and  thirst,  and  of  the  innumerable  kinds 
of  torments  which  the  Queen  had  commanded  to  be  em- 
ployed to  exterminate  Catholicity  in  her  dominions.  The 
future  apostles,  far  from  being  alarmed  at  the  vivid  por- 
traying of  these  horrible  torments,  most  ardently  desired  to 
possess  the  happiness  of  undergoing  them  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  faith  in  their  unhappy  country.  Queen  Eliza- 
beth knew  all  this,  for  her  spies  had  insinuated  themselves 
every-where.  They  were  to  be  found  at  Rheims  and  at 
Rome,  and  in  every  place  where  English  Catholics  had 
taken  refuge — even  in  the  midst  of  private  families.  In 
consequence  of  the  reports  made  by  these  spies,  the 
British  coast  was  more  strictly  guarded  than  ever.  In 
order  to  prevent  any  mistake,  the  portraits  of  the  stu- 
dents of  the  two  colleges  named,  of  the  professors,  and 
of  all  the  English  Jesuits,  were  placarded  on  the  walls 
of  the  seaport  towns  and  the  principal  cities  of  the  three 
kingdoms. 

On  the  19th  of  June,  1580,  a  naval  officer,  with  the 
free  and  manly  deportment  natural  to  that  profession,  and 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.  205 

the  assurance  of  one  wlio  was  aware  of  his  own  import- 
ance, introduced  liimself  to  the  Governor  of  Dover,  and  ad- 
dressing him  as  one  gentleman  would  another,  said  to  him  : 
"I  leave  immediately  for  London.  I  have  made  an  ap- 
pointment to  meet  a  merchant  there  upon  important  busi- 
ness of  state.  He  is  expected  to  arrive  in  three  or  four 
days,  and  I  beg  of  your  Honor  to  give  orders  that  he  may 
not  be  delayed  here,  but  be  furnished  with  the  necessary 
means  for  proceeding  to  London  without  loss  of  time.  I 
make  the  same  request  for  one  of  my  men,  who  accom- 
panies him." 

"His  name,  sir?"  asked  the  Governor. 
"Edmund  Patrick." 

"Very  well,"  replied  the  Governor.  "The  necessary 
orders  shall  be  given  for  their  departure  without  delay." 

Four  days  after,  the  merchant  landed  at  Dover,  and 
was  met  on  the  shore  by  the  agents  of  the  Governor,  who 
communicated  to  him  the  order  that  he  was  to  proceed 
immediately  to  the  capital.  On  arriving  in  London,  he 
was  much  surprised  to  j5nd  himself  received  as  a  friend 
by  several  young  men,  who  shook  hands  with  him  most 
cordially. 

"My  dear  Edmund,  here  you  are  at  last!  We  have 
been  expecting  you  for  the  last  four  days.  Have  you  had 
a  happy  voyage?  " 

"  Yes,  my  friends ;  so  far  every  thing  has  been  satis- 
factory." 

As  they  went  along,  his  overjoyed  friends  said  to  him : 
"Gilbert  has  bespoken  you;    we  are   all  going  to  his 
house  to  dinner. 

"And  you  will  make  my  house  your  home,"  added 
Gilbert." 

On  reaching  a  point  where  they  could  not  be  overheard 
by  the  passers-by,  Gilbert  suddenly  exclaimed  to  the 
stranger : 


206  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"  Thank  God,  Reverend  Father,  you  are  safe  !" 

"And  Father  Parsons?" 

"  He  is  here.     We  are  now  going  to  see  him." 

The  naval  officer  was,  in  fact,  no  other  than  Father 
Robert  Parsons,  who  had  thus,  so  to  speak,  commanded 
the  Governor  of  Dover  to  facilitate  the  arrival  of  Father 
Edmund  Campian  and  Brother  Emerson  in  London.  Their 
portraits,  like  those  of  many  others,  were  placarded  through- 
out the  seaport  towns,  as  well  as  in  the  streets  of  London  ; 
but  no  one  thought  of  looking  for  them  under  the  disguise 
of  a  naval  officer  and  a  merchant.  Robert  Parsons,  on  ar- 
riving in  London,  had  learned  that  the  mission  had  been 
denounced,  that  the  most  rigorous  orders  had  been  issued 
against  it,  and  that  any  Jesuit  found  landing  would  be 
arrested  and  executed  without  even  the  form  of  trial. 

This  English  mission,  founded  in  1579,  by  order  of  the 
Holy  See,  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  William  Allen,  an 
English  Priest,  who  subsequently  became  Cardinal,  con- 
sisted of  Fathers  Parsons,  Campian,  Rudolph  Sherwin, 
Luke  Kirby,  and  Edward  Risthon.  Brother  Emerson, 
four  English  priests,  and  two  young  laymen  accompanied 
them.  They  had  separated  so  as  to  land  at  different  ports, 
to  avoid  arousing  suspicion,  and  to  escape  the  notice  of 
the  officers  of  the  Queen.  We  have  seen  how  fortunate 
Father  Parsons  was  in  reaching  London  in  safety,  and  the 
ingenious  means  he  had  employed  to  insure  the  safety  of 
Father  Campian,  who  did  not  know  one  of  the  young  men 
who  had  met  him  on  his  arrival  in  the  capital,  but  who 
quickly  understood  the  object  of  this  reception. 

The  two  Fathers,  thus  safely  within  the  prohibited  limits, 
immediately  commenced  their  labors.  Father  Parsons's  first 
visit  was  to  the  Tower,  there  to  comfort  and  strengthen 
Thomas  Pound,  who  had  become  his  brother.  The  joy  of 
the  young  convert  can  easily  be  imagined  on  finding  him- 
self visited  by  a  member  of  that  Society  of  Jesus  to  which 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.    207 

he  was  so  happy  and  proud  to  belong.  The  interview  was 
too  short  for  those  two  men,  who  were  so  closely  united, 
although  they  had  never  seen  each  other  before.  But  the 
minutes  were  counted  for  the  prisoners,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  use  the  greatest  prudence.  After  visiting  several 
families,  and  fortifying  them  in  their  faith,  Robert  Par- 
sons went  into  the  suburbs  visiting  the  poor,  whom  he 
exhorted  and  instructed,  hearing  their  confessions,  and  ad- 
ministering the  sacraments.  He  then  returned  to  the  city, 
where  he  had  left  Father  Carapian.  The  latter,  who  was 
gifted  with  extraordinary  eloquence,  had,  in  compliance 
with  the  request  of  several  gentlemen,  preached  at  a  meet- 
ing of  their  friends,  whom  he  completely  electrified  by  his 
oratory  and  erudition.  The  young  men  who  were  present 
expressed  the  great  delight  they  experienced  in  listening 
to  the  admirable  discourse  of  Father  Campian,  and  other 
Catholics  sought  permission  to  be  present  on  like  occasions 
and  share  the  same  privilege.  At  length,  in  consequence 
of  the  frequency  of  these  meetings,  suspicion  attached  to 
the  Jesuit,  who  was,  therefore,  watched,  and  it  was  high 
time  his  Superior  arrived  in  order  to  check  his  zeal.  Father 
Parsons  ordered  him  to  leave  London  immediately,  to 
change  his  dress  daily,  never  to  remain  two  days  in  the  same 
place,  and  to  continue  travelling  until  he  was  satisfied  that 
those  who  were  watching  him  had  lost  all  trace  of  his 
whereabouts. 

Elizabeth,  informed  by  her  officers  of  the  presence  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  desiring  to  stimulate  the  zeal  of  the  her- 
etics, caused  the  report  to  be  circulated  that  the  Society 
of  Jesus  had  sent  emissaries  into  England,  ostensibly 
for  religious  purposes,  but,  in  reality,  to  organize  a  con- 
spiracy against  her  person,  in  conjunction  with  the  mal- 
content nobles;  moreover,  that  they  were  furnished  with 
full  powers  by  all  the  Catholic  sovereigns,  and  were  au- 
thorized by  the  Pope. 


208  HISTORY   OF    THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  it  became  necessary  for  the  Jesuits 
to  leave  London.  Before  quittino^  the  capital,  Father  Par- 
sons called  a  meeting  of  all  the  Catholic  priests,  at  which  he 
conferred  with  them  on  the  future  well-beins;  of  their  flock, 
and  announced  the  instructions  of  the  Father-General,  to 
the  effect  that,  under  no  circumstances,  were  they  to  inter- 
fere in  the  affairs  of  the  state.  Immediately  after  this 
meeting  they  left,  and  were  sought  for  in  all  directions, 
but  in  vain,  when  the  authorities,  coming  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  had  embarked  for  the  Continent,  gave  up  their 
search,  and  returned  to  London. 

While  the  Fathers  were  thus  pursued,  another  Jesuit, 
Father  Donnell,  an  Irishman,  lauded  at  Limerick,  his 
native  city.  He  had  been  sent  by  the  Father-General  to 
reinforce  the  missionaries,  who  were  totally  inadequate 
for  the  necessities  of  the  three  kingdoms.  But  no  sooner 
had  he  landed,  than  he  was  recognized,  arrested,  and  con- 
veyed to  prison. 

"  You  can  regain  your  liberty,"  said  the  ojQBcial  who 
had  been  deputed  to  interrogate  him,  "if  you  will  re- 
nounce Popery ;  but,  if  you  persist  in  professing  that 
religion,  certain  death  awaits  you." 

"  By  the  grace  of  God,"  replied  the  missionary,  "  I  will 
never  profess  any  other  faith  than  that  of  the  Catholic, 
Apostolic,  and  Roman  Church." 

"And,  moreover,"  continued  the  official,  "your  future 
prospects  would  be  most  brilliant.  Our  Queen  will  heap 
riches  and  honors  upon  you,  if  you  will  but  publicly  ac- 
knowledge her  to.be  the  supreme  director  of  consciences, 
for  she  has  a  perfect  right  to  impose  upon  her  subjects 
the  religion  which  she  herself  professes." 

This  proposition  was  most  indignantly  rejected  by 
Father  Donnell,  who  again  declared  his  firm  and  unal- 
terable attachment  to  the  Catholic  faith ;  whereupon, 
they  tied  his  hands  behind  his  back,  placed  a  cord  around 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.    209 

his  body,  the  two  ends  of  which  were  held  by  a  man,  and 
he  was  thus  conveyed  to  Cork,  where  he  was  condemned 
to  death  for  his  obstinate  impiety  in  professing  Catholicity 
ill  spite  of  the  prohibition  of  the  Queen.  Such  were  the 
words  of  the  verdict.  The  Jesuit  listened  to  the  reading 
of  this  sentence  with  an  expression  of  happiness,  and 
joyfully  gave  himself  up  to  his  executioners,  who  placed 
the  cord  around  his  neck.  But  the  demon  of  darkness 
did  not  ignore  the  all-powerful  influence  which  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs  had  had  in  those  lands  of  which  he  had 
made  conquest,  and  it  was  upon  this  heroic  son  of  St. 
Ignatius,  whose  glorious  martyrdom  might  rob  him  of  so 
many  victims,  that  he  would  now  wreak  his  vengeance. 
He  infused  into  the  hearts  of  these  infuriated  myrmidons 
of  the  bigoted  Queen  a  refinement  of  cruelty  which  our 
pen  hesitates  to  trace.  The  martyr  still  lives;  they  rip 
open  his  body,  and  tear  out  his  heart  and  bowels,  which 
they  fling  into  the  devouring  flames  of  a  bonfire! 

Father  Parsons,  on  hearing  of  this  cruel  martyrdom, 
worthy  the  days  of  Nero,  wrote  to  Father  Everard  Mer- 
curian  to  send  more  Fathers  to  assist  them  in  their  labors. 
''We  have  so  much  to  do  here,"  added  he,  "that  fre- 
quently we  have  but  two  hours  during  the  night  wherein  to 
take  rest."  He  well  knew  that  the  holy  death  of  the  glo- 
rious martyr  Donnell,  far  from  alarming  his  brethren  of 
the  society,  would  only  still  further  stimulate  their  zeal. 

IV. 

The  mission  in  Brazil  had  been  interrupted  by  the  mas- 
sacre of  seventy-one  of  the  Fathers,  who  had  been  cru- 
elly martyred  by  the  Calvinists;  but,  a  year  after,  in  1572, 
Father  Toledo  landed  on  the  Brazilian  coast  v/ith  twelve 
missionaries,  of  whom  he  was  the  Superior,  and  whom  he 
immediately  distributed  in  the  various  localities  indicated 
by  Father  Joseph  Anchieta.     This  holy  missionary,  who  so 


210  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ardently  desired  their  assistance,  prayed  fervently  for  theii 
safe  passage,  since  the  disaster  of  the  preceding  year  had 
deprived  his  cherished  savages  of  so  many  apostles. 
He  alone,  by  his  individual  exertions,  had  accomplished 
marvels  among  the  barbarous  tribes  of  the  interior,  into 
whose  country  he  had  fearlessly  penetrated,  after  having 
preached  the  Gospel  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  coasts,  and 
brought  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church  so  many  Eu- 
ropeans whom  cupidity  and  bad  passions  had  estranged 
from  God.  Barefooted,  his  rosary  around  his  neck,  his 
crucifix  by  his  side,  his  breviary  under  his  arm,  and 
bearing  on  his  shoulders  his  portable  chapel,  consist- 
ing of  a  small  altar  and  some  vestments,  he  went  for- 
ward, without  any  guide  but  that  all-sufficient  one,  the 
grace  of  God.  Whenever  he  saw  one  of  the  natives,  he 
advanced  toward  him  with  crucifix  in  hand.  If  a  river 
separated  him  from  the  object  of  his  charity,  he  hesitated 
not  to  precipitate  himself  into  the  stream,  and  to  make 
for  the  opposite  bank,  calling  aloud  to  the  poor  Pagan, 
whom  he  sought  to  win  to  God.  If,  at  another  time, 
sharp  rocks,  thorny  brushwood,  or  the  densely-spiked  cac- 
tus were  the  impediment,  he  would  work  his  way  through 
them  with  equal  zeal,  not  unfrequently,  in  the  eflfort, 
leaving  part  of  his  clothing  and  lacerated  flesh  upon  his 
traces;  and  ever,  when  he  attained  the  object  of  his 
search,  though  his  body  might  be  torn  and  bleeding,  and 
worn  down  with  fatigue,  his  heart  would  leap  with  a  holy 
joy.  Did  the  savage,  as  was  often  the  case,  fly  at  his 
approach,  the  good  Father  would  follow  him,  calling  upon 
him,  in  gentle  words  of  encouragement;  and  whenever  he 
came  upon  a  tribe  he  would  extend  his  arms  toward  them, 
afi"ectionately  address  them,  and  speak  to  them  of  that  God 
who  had  loved  them  so  much  as  even  to  die  for  them.  Did 
they  repulse  him,  he  would  fall  on  his  knees,  and  im- 
plore them,  with  tears,  to  hear  him.     The  Pagans,  moved 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD   MERCURIAN.    211 

by  sucli  tender  proofs  of  his  sincere  desire  for  their  eter- 
nal welfare,  in  most  instances  yielded,  and  became  Chris- 
tians. By  these,  and  the  like  means,  he  succeeded  in  con- 
verting entire  colonies.  Almighty  God,  moved  by  his 
zeal  and  the  almost  superhuman  exertions  he  made  for 
His  glory,  accorded  him  the  gift  of  miracles  so  abund- 
antly that  he  seemed  to  spread  them  along  his  path;  and 
he  has  been  justly  surnarned  the  Apostle  of  the  Brazils, 
for  the  good  which  he  effected  was  prodigious,  and  greatly 
facilitated  the  future  labors  of  the  Jesuits  in  that  part  of 
the  world. 

The  Japanese  mission  was  one  of  the  most  flourishing, 
but  yet  it  needed  more  missionaries.  In  1573,  the  Gen- 
eral of  the  society  ordered  Father  Gonzalve  Alvarez,  who 
was  then  at  Macao,  to  proceed  immediately,  with  three 
other  Jesuits,  to  Japan.  Father  Alvarez  was  attacked  with 
a  serious  illness,  but  that  mattered  not.  It  was  of  little  im- 
port to  a  Jesuit  whether  he  died  on  land  or  at  sea,  provided 
he  died  in  the  practice  of  obedience.  Gonzalve  Alvarez  thus 
answered  Everard  Mercurian : 

"All  are  agi-eed  in  portraying  this  voyage  to  Japan  as  most 
iangerous  for  me,  on  account  of  the  state  of  my  health.  My  suf- 
ferings and  my  enfeebled  state  are  such  that  I  can  scarcely  stand 
.0  otfer  up  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  But,  no  matter;  strong  in 
jbedience,  I  go,  and  am  ready  to  do  all  that  it  may  please  God  to 
require  of  me.  That  which,  above  all  else,  consoles  me,  are  the 
words  which  you  recently  addressed  to  me:  'If  it  should  so  hap- 
pen that  you  die  in  this  undertaking,  you  will  have  no  reason  to 
regret  it.'  " 

"These  lines  were  w^ritten  by  Father  Alvarez,  at  the 
moment  of  his  embarkation.  He  was  shipwrecked  within 
sight  of  Japan,  together  with  the  three  Jesuits  who  ac- 
companied him.  The  news  of  this  serious  loss  greatly 
afflicted  the  Japanese  missionaries,  and  caused  them  to 
redouble  their  labors,  well  knowing  that  a  long  time 
20 


212  HISTORY    or    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

* 

would  elapse  before   further  aid  would  reach  them,   and 
their  ardent  desire  was  to  extend  their  utility  far  and  wide. 

The  King  of  Omura,  Bartholomew  Sumitanda,  had 
given  battle  to  the  Bonzes^  whom  he  wished  to  exterm- 
inate, and,  after  defeating  them,  he  called  the  Jesuits  to 
convert  them.  The  neophytes  begged  of  the  Fathers  not 
to  risk  their  lives  in  this  useless  attempt;  but  the  Jesuit 
is  ever  intrepid  and  fearless  of  danger.  Three  of  the 
Fathers  went  to  Cori,  a  town  occupied  by  the  Bonzes, 
and  succeeded  in  converting  them. 

Civandono,  King  of  Bungo,  wished  his  son,  who  was 
only  fourteen  years  of  age,  to  become  a  Bonze;  but  the 
young  prince  declared  his  determination  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity, whereupon  the  King  sent  for  Father  Cabral  to 
instruct  and  baptize  him.  The  Father  also  had  the  hap- 
piness to  see  all  the  high  personages  of  the  court  who 
attended  his  instructions  ask  to  be  baptized  at  the  same 
time  as  the  young  prince,  who  received  the  rrame  of  Se- 
bastian. The  King  of  Arima,  struck  by  these  examples, 
imitated  them,  and  was  also  baptized  in  the  beginning  of 
the  year  1576.  About  this  time,  the  first  monumental 
church  in  Japan  was  erected  at  Meaco,  the  capital  of  the 
empire,  which,  until  -then,  had  possessed  but  very  poor 
chapels,  totally  inadequate  to  accommodate  the  great 
number  of  Christian  worshippers.  All  the  Christians 
were  anxious  to  contribute  toward  the  expense  of  the 
building  and  decoration  of  this  church,  and  they  begged 
that  it  might  be  dedicated  in  honor  of  the  Assumpfion, 
as  a  commemoration  of  the  arrival  of  the  great  apostle, 
Francis  Xavier,  who  first  set  foot  in  Japan  on  that  feast. 

At  length,  in  the  year  1577,  thirteen  of  the  Fathers 
came  to  devote  themselves  to  the  extension  of  Chris- 
tianity in  this  promising  locality,  and  Father  Cabral 
availed  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  erect  a  college 
and  a  novitiate,  which   should   become    the    nurseries  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  EVERARD  MERCURIAN.  213 

future  holy  martyrs.  The  fortune  of  Brother  Louis 
Almeida  was  applied  toward  this  great  and  important 
undertaking.  Almeida  was  not  in  holy  orders.  A  rich 
merchant-seaman,  he  had  known  the  illustrious  and 
holy  Apostle  of  the  East,  was  present  at  his  death  at  San- 
cian,  and  had  conveyed  his  venerated  remains  on  board  his 
vessel  from  Sancian  to  Malacca.  He  had  witnessed  the  in- 
numerable prodigies  effected  by  the  glorious  saint  during 
the  last  months  of  his  admirable  life  and  after  his  heroic 
death,  and  he  had  quitted  the  world  in  order  to  devote 
himself  to  Almighty  God  as  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  In  it  he  became  a  catechist  and  preacher,  follow- 
ing the  missionaries  on  their  stations,  but  had  been  al- 
lowed to  retain  his  fortune  for  a  few  years  longer  for  the 
necessities  of  the  missions.  Such  was  the  position  of 
Louis  Almeida,  who  was  always  called  Father  by  the 
Japanese,  in  common  with  the  other  members  of  the 
society. 

On  the  28th  August,  1578,  Civandono,  King  of  Bungo, 
yielding,  at  last,  to  the  secret  promptings  of  his  conscience 
and  to  the  exhortations  of  Father  John,  a  Japanese  Jes- 
uit, received  baptism,  taking  the  name  of  Francis  Xavier, 
in  memory  of  the  saint  whom  he  had  so  much  loved. 
His  eldest  son,  Joscimond,  was  also  baptized  at  the  same 
time.  The  King  then  relinquished  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment into  the  hands  of  his  son,  and  retired  from  the 
court.     He  built  a  town  in   the  kingdom  of  Fiunga,  the 

O  0      5 

inhabitants  of  which  were  all  Christians.  The  Queen  of 
Joscimond  still  continued  in  idolatry,  but  before  long  she 
expressed  a  desire  to  be  baptized.  This  was  a  grace 
which  the  Jesuits  accorded  only  after  a  long  perseverance, 
rendered  necessary  by  the  naturally  inconstant  character 
of  the  Japanese.  The  King  complained  to  Father  Froez 
of  his  protracted  delay  in  satisfying  the  ardent  desire  of 
his  wife  to  become  a  Christian. 


214  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"  You  see,  Prince,"  replied  the  Jesuit,  "  how  widely  our 
law  differs  from  that  of  the  Bonzes.  Where  is  the  one 
among  them  who,  at  the  request  of  a  King,  like  you, 
would  refuse  to  initiate  the  Queen  in  the  mysteries  of  his 
sect?  But  the  Christians  pursue  a  different  course  when 
the  eternal  salvation  of  a  soul  is  in  question :  they  do  not 
act  precipitately.  The  Queen  is  not  yet  sufficiently  ex- 
perienced in  the  practice  of  our  holy  religion,  and  those 
of  high  rank  are  never  allowed  to  become  members  of  it 
until  they  are  prepared  to  serve  as  models  to  all  by  an 
exemplary  and  edifying  life." 

At  this  period,  1579,  Japan  possessed  twenty-nine  Jes- 
uits and  one  hundred  thousand  Christians. 

The  Grand  Moo;ul,  Akebar,  desired  also  to  learn  the 
doctrine  which  the  renowned  Xavier  had  introduced  into 
the  East,  and  which  his  followers  and  brethren  had  so  suc- 
cessfully taught  and  propagated.  He  had  requested  the 
Viceroy  of  the  Portuguese  settlements  in  India  to  send  him 
ministers  of  that  religion,  and  Father  Everard  Mercurian 
selected  for  that  mission  Fathers  Rudolph  Aquaviva, 
nephew  of  Father  Claudio  Aquaviva,  Anthony  Montserrat, 
and  Francis  Henriquez. 

The  three  missionaries  reached  their  destination  in 
1579,  and  were  received  with  marked  distinction  and  cor- 
diality by  the  Emperor  and  the  nobles  of  his  court.  But 
they  could  not  prevail  upon  them  to  embrace  a  religion 
which  condemned  every  vice  and  required  the  renuncia- 
tion of  every  bad  passion.  The  moment  of  grace  was  not 
yet  arrived  for  this  people,  who  blindly  abandoned  them- 
selves to  their  foolish  pride;  and,  after  having  labored  in 
vain  for  some  time,  Father  Rudolph  requested  to  be  al- 
lowed to  return  to  Goa.  Akebar  was  much  grieved  at  the 
departure  of  the  missionaries,  whose  society  he  greatly 
relished,  whose   virtues  and   teachings    he   admired,   but 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATUER  EVERARD   MERCURIAN.    215 

whose  advice  he  had  not  the  courage  to  follow.  When 
they  were  leaving,  he  permitted  them  to  take  with  them 
four  Christian  slaves,  whose  freedom  had  been  obtained 
by  Father  Kudolph, 

On  the  18th  March,  1580,  John  Francis  Bonhomi, 
Bishop  of  Verceil,  and  Apostolical  Nuncio  in  Switzerland, 
communicated  to  the  Holy  See  the  condition  in  which  he 
found  that  unhappy  country,  which  the  preachings  of  the 
apostate  canon,  Alderic  Zwingle,  had  almost  entirely 
drawn  over  to  error.  "To  remedy  this  evil,"  added  the 
Nuncio,  "  to  destroy  irreligious  principles,  and  to  bring 
back  faith  and  morals  to  their  pristine  purity,  there  is 
only  one  means,  which  is  to  erect  a  college  of  Jesuits  at 
Freiburg."  The  Pope  requested  the  General  of  the  soci- 
ety to  send  to  Freiburg  two  of  the  Fathers  from  the  Prov- 
ince of  Germany,  and  Peter  Canisius  was,  consequently, 
called  from  his  seclusion  to  go  and  found  this  college,  and 
bring  back  to  the  Church  those  unhappy  souls  of  which 
heresy  had  deprived  her.  It  was  there  that  the  illustrious 
Canisius  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life,  preaching  the  Gos- 
pel and  educating  the  young — at  one  time  climbing  to 
the  very  summit  of  mountains,  at  another  wending  his  way 
into  valleys,  spending  the  last  days  of  his  holy  old  age  in 
this  humble  apostleship,  and  leaving  every-where  an  im- 
perishable monument  of  his  gentle  virtues  and  eminent 
piety.^^ 

On  the  1st  Auprust,  1580,  Father  Everard  Mercurian 
resigned  his  soul  to  God,  leaving  the  society  in  a  state  of 

*  After  his  death,  the  people  visited  his  grave  iu  crowds,  and,  by 
his  intercession, obtained  such  signal  graces,  that  the  authorities  v/ero 
unable  to  arrest  their  enthusiasm,  and  prevent  them  from  paying 
a  sort  of  public  worship  to  hiin  whom  Germany  and  Switzerland 
claimed  respectively  as  their  Father  and  Apostle.  The  Church  has 
since  decreed  ihe  title  of  Blessed  to  Father  Canisius. 
20* 


216  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

prosperity,  which  was  the  consolation  of  his  last  moments. 
At  this  time  the  Society  of  Jesus  numbered  more  than 
five  thousand  members,  one  hundred  houses,  and  twenty- 
one  provinces. 

On  the  day  following  the  death  of  Father  Mercurian, 
Father  Oliver  Manareo,  who  was  Vicar-General  during 
the  vacancy  of  the  Generalship,  convened  the  General 
Congregation  for  the  7th  February,  1581. 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   CLAUDIO   AQUAVIVA.    2IV 


FIFTH    GENERAL. 
1G81  — 1615. 

I. 

Among  the  number  of  the  professed  members  of  the 
society  assembled  at  Rome  for  the  General  Congregation 
were  the  last  two  surviving  companions  of  Ignatius  of 
Loyola.  Alfonso  Salmeron  and  Nicholas  Bobadilla  still 
lived,  and  were  ci^led  to  the  assembly  to  nominate  and 
appoint  his  fourth  successor.  A  peaceful  and  happy  old 
age  was  that  of  these  two  veterans  of  the  society.  They 
had  seen  its  birth,  growth,  and  rapid  development,  and 
they  beheld  it  shining  forth  with  such  dazzling  brightness, 
that  each  day  seemed,  as  it  were,  a  new  and  touching 
realization  of  the  Divine  promise,   "  I  iclll  befriend  youy 

On  the  19th  February,  1581,  Father  Claudio  Aquaviva 
was  elected  fifth  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He  was 
the  son  of  Prince  John  Anthony  Aquaviva  d'Atria  and 
of  Isabella  Spinelli.  Entering  the  society  at  an  early  age, 
he  possessed  its  spirit  in  an  eminent  degree.  Providence 
seemed  to  indicate,  by  this  choice,  the  new  struggles  and 
difficulties  which  the  society  would  have  to  sustain. 

Father  Possevin  had  quitted  Sweden,  leaving  several  of 
the  Fathers  there  to  continue  his  labors.  During  his  so- 
journ in  that  country  he  had  won  the  love  and  veneration 
of  the  Catholics,  the  esteem  of  the  Lutherans,  and  the 
affection  of  the  King.      He  had  come  to  give  an  account 


I'lB  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  his  mission  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiflf,  and  was  about  to 
enter  upon  another,  the  interesting  incidents  of  which  we 
regret  being  unable  to  relate. 

The  Czar  of  Russia,  Iwan  IV,  had  taken  possession  of 
Livonia,  and  threatened  Poland.  Stephen,  who  had  fore- 
seen his  designs  for  conquest,  had  hastened  to  encounter 
him  with  a  large  army,  and  had  succeeded  in  forcing  him 
to  retreat  to  the  other  side  of  the  frontier.  Iwan,  fearing 
that  the  King  of  Poland  might  push  still  further  his  vic- 
torious army,  sought  the  most  powerful  mediator  he  could 
think  of,  and,  schismatic  though  he  was,  he  determined  to 
appeal  to  the  Pope,  feeling  persuaded  that  a  sovereign  so 
attached  to  the  Church  of  Rome  as  Stephen  was,  would 
not  ofifer  any  opposition  to  the  interference  of  its  supreme 
head.  With  this  object  in  view,  he  sent  an  ambassador  to 
Rome,  in  tke  person  of  Thomas  Severigene.  The  Pope, 
hoping  that  some  advantage  might  accrue  to  the  Church, 
agreed  to  act  as  mediator  between  the  two  belligerent 
powers,  and  confided  to  his  Legate,  Father  Anthony  Posse- 
vin,  this  difficult  negotiation,  instructing  him  to  stipulate 
with  the  Czar  of  Russia,  as  the  basis  of  the  treaty  of 
peace,  that  he  should  accord  a  free  passage  through  his 
states  to  the  nuncios  and  missionaries  who  might  be  sent 
by  the  Holy  See  to  India,  Tartary,  and  China,  as  well  as  a 
guarantee  for  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  for  the 
Catholic'priests  and  merchants  of  Muscovy. 

On  the  15th  December,  1581,  the  conferences  of  the 
Congress  of  Ambassadors  was  commenced  at  Chiverona- 
Horca,  near  Porchow.  Russia  was  represented  by  Duke 
Demetrius,  Peter  Jeletski,  and  Romain  Olpherius  ;  Poland 
by  Sbaraski,  Palatine  of  Breslau,  and  Duke  Albert  Radzi- 
vill ;  and  Sweden  by  Christopher  Warsevicz,  brother  of  the 
Jesuit  Father  of  that  name. 

Previous  to  the  opening  of  the  Congress,  the  whole  of 
the  ambassadors  attended  mass,  after  which  the  session  was 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     219 

commenced.  Father  Possevin,  in  his  cnpaeity  of  the  Pope's 
Le<2jate,  presided,  and,  having  received  the  credentials  of 
each  of  the  plenipotentiaries,  ordered  that  the  negotiations 
should  be  entered  upon.  The  discussions  were  animated, 
and  frequently  bitter  and  sarcastic;  but  the  Jesuit,  ever 
calm  and  dignified,  and  always  acting  as  the  minister  of 
peace,  showed  himself  master  of  the  situation  in  which 
he  was  placed,  calmed  the  frequent  storms  and  ebullitions 
of  feeling,  and  exercised  such  a  mild  influence  over  the 
entire  assembly  that  no  one  could  take  exception  to  his 
proceedings. 

Poland  insisted  that  Russia  should  renounce  all  claim 
to  Livonia,  and,  moreover,  urged  her  right  to  hold  the 
town  of  Veliki.  If  these  propositions  were  refused,  she 
threatened  to  resume  hostilities.  The  representatives 
of  Russia  assured  the  Legate  that  their  instructions  em- 
powered them  to  agree  to  the  cession  of  Livonia,  but  that 
they  were  not  to  sign  this  concession  until  the  last  mo- 
ment, and  that  they  could  not  go  further  without  consult- 
ing the  Czar.  Father  Possevin,  seeing  the  Congress  pro- 
longed, and  fearing  fresh  delays,  endeavored  to  reconcile 
the  parties  to  mutual  concessions.  Duke  Demetrius  dared 
not,  he  said,  exceed  his  instructions.  The  treaty  was  drawn 
up,  and  ready  to  be  signed.  The  moment  was  a  critical 
one. 

"  I  can  not  agree  to  the  relinquishment  of  Veliki,  Rev- 
erend Father,"  said  he  to  the  Legate.  "  What  do  you  ad- 
vise?" 

"  Your  sovereign  desires  peace,"  replied  Father  Pos- 
sevin ; "  he  desires  it  at  any  price,  as  you  are  aware,  and 
yet,  for  fear  of  incurring  his  displeasure,  you  hesitate  to 
exceed  your  instructions.  Well,  I  will  be  responsible  for 
the  risk  you  run.  Write,  and  tell  Iwan  IV  that  it  is  I 
who  have  induced  you  to  exceed  his  instructions,  and  say 
that,  on  my  arrival  at  Moscow,  according  to  the  promise 


220  HISTORY    OF    THK   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

I  have  made  to  his   Serene  Highness,  I  am  prepared  to 
give  my  head,  if  he  thinks  I  have  gone  too  far." 

It  was  agreed  that,  for  the  protection  of  the  Russian 
ambassadors,  the  question  of  the  cession  of  Veliki  should 
be  left  to  Father  Possevin,  or  to  one  of  the  Jesuits  who 
accompanied  him.  But,  at  the  very  last  moment,  another 
complication  presented  itself.  The  sovereigns  of  Europe 
recognized  the  Czar  of  Russia  simply  as  Grand  Duke  of 
Muscovy,  and  the  Polish  ambassadors  contended  that  the 
wording  of  the  treaty  gave  no  other  name  to  Iwan  IV; 
the  title  of  Czar  signifying  Emperor,  they  refused  to  ac- 
cord to  him.  The  Russian  ambassadors,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  instructed,  in  the  event  of  the  question  cf  this 
title  creating  any  difficulty,  to  refer  it  to  the  Jesuit  Leg- 
ate in  order  to  have  it  recognized  in  the  treaty.  Faith- 
ful to  their  instructions,  they  secretly  sought  an  interview 
with  Father  Possevin,  during  the  nio;ht  of  the  31st  De- 
cember  and  1st  January,  1582,  and  had  a  long  conference 
with  him  on  the  subject.  The  Duke  Demetrius,  being 
unable  to  bring  him  to  his  view  of  the  question,  said : 

"But,  Reverend  Father,  my  sovereign  has  acknowl- 
edged the  Pope's  title  of  Universal  Pastor  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  You,  Father,  who  are  his  ambassador,  can 
not,  surely,  feel  a  greater  repugnance  in  using  your  influ- 
ence to  have  accorded  to  Prince  Iwan  the  title  of  Czar." 

"Your  master,"  answered  the  Legate,  "has  given  to 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  the  title  with  which  every  Catholic 
prince  honors  him;  but,  up  to  this  time,  I  know  of  none 
who  have  accorded  to  the  Grand  Duke  the  title  of  Czar." 

This  reply  put  an  end  to  the  discussion.  On  the  15th 
January  the  treaty  was  signed,  and,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  north,  it  was  confirmed  by  the  touching  cere- 
mony of  the  kissing  of  the  cross.  All  the  parties  assem- 
bled in  the  chapel,  where  Father  Possevin  said  mass,  after 
which  they  placed  upon  the  altar  the  official   documents, 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.    221 

signed  by  tlie  conti-cacting  parties,  and  then  the  Musco- 
vites passed  up  in  rotation,  and,  kissing  the  cross  which 
the  Legate  held  in  his  hand,  they  solemnly  swore  that 
they  accepted  the  conditions  of  the  treaty.  The  ambas- 
sadors afterward  added,  at  the  end  of  the  treaty, 

"  We  have  gladly  signed  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  we 
have  ratified  it  by  the  veneration  of  the  cross,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Reverend  Father  Anthony  Possevin,  Legate 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Pontiff,  Gregory  XIII." 

The  ceremon}^  concluded,  Stephen  II  said  to  the  Leg- 
ate : 

"  Reverend  Father,  it  is  to  you,  more  than  to  her 
arms,  that  Poland  owes  the  possession  of  Livonia.  I  will, 
therefore,  place  that  province  under  the  protecting  care  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus ;  and  I  beg  of  you  to  send  some  of 
your  Fathers  thither  to  establish  colleges,  for  heresy  is 
there  rampant,  and  I  am  confident  the  Jesuits  will  speed- 
ily extirpate  it." 

Having  .promised  the  King  not  to  forget  this  request, 
Father  Possevin  proceeded  to  Moscow,  in  order  to  com- 
plete his  mission.  He  was  accompanied  by  the  Russian 
ambassador,  and,  along  the  entire  route,  he  was  addressed 
by  the  title  of  Pacificator  of  the  North.  In  fact,  his  jour- 
ney to  Moscow  was  one  of  triumph.  The  Czar,  unable  to 
swerve  from  the  promise  he  had  made,  said,  although  re- 
luctantly: 

"  I  grant  you  all  that  you  ask  in  the  name  of  the  Sov- 
ereign Pontiff — the  passage  through  my  states  for  his 
nuncios  and  missionaries,  the  free  exercise  of  their  re- 
ligion to  the  Catholic  priests  and  merchants — but  I  do  not 
wish  that  my  subjects  be  allowed  to  enter  the  churches  or 
chapels  that  you  may  erect.  The  deed  of  this  concession 
is  about  to  be  drawn  up,  and  as  it  is  you  who  have  ob- 
tained it,  it  is  you,  Anthony  Possevin,  who  shall  deliver 
it  to  the  Pope." 


222  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

In  his  last  interview,  when  taking  leave  of  the  Czar, 
the  Fatho"  was  loaded  with  the  most  costly  and  magnifi- 
cent presents.  He  had  gone  on  this  mission  for  the  glory 
of  God,  and  in  obedience  to  his  superior  and  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiif,  but  not  for  the  honors  and  presents  thus  lav- 
ished upon  him.  He  had  accepted  these  honors  out  of 
respect  for  the  Holy  See,  whose  Legate  he  was,  and  he 
received  the  rich  presents  in  the  same  spirit;  but  those 
which  were  presented  to  himself  personally,  he  distributed 
among  the  poor  on  leaving  the  Kremlin.  To  the  Rus 
sians,  such  disinterestedness  was  an  enigma. 

The  Pope  was  more  than  satisfied  with  the  results  se 
cured  by  the  talent  and  diplomacy  of  the  Jesuit;  hence 
he  was  unwilling  that  he  should  return.  His  Holiness 
had  just  heard  from  the  King  of  Poland  the  news  of  the 
sad  and  deplorable  condition  of  Livonia  and  Transylvania, 
which  were  harassed  and  overrun  by  the  Arians,  Anabap- 
tists, Lutherans,  and  Calvinists.  He  expressed  his  desire 
of  opposing  to  all  these  sectarians  the  learning  and  elo- 
quence of  Father  Possevin,  "  whose  able  counsels,"  His 
Majesty  added,  "  were  especially  needed  by  himself,  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  surmount  the  many  obstacles  which 
had  been  raised  around  him  by  these  various  sectarians." 
Gregory  XIII,  therefore,  commanded  Father  Possevin  to 
proceed  to  Livonia,  in  compliance  with  the  request  of  Ste- 
phen II,  and  the  Jesuit,  having  first  obtained  the  sanction 
and  blessing  of  the  Father-General,  set  out  on  his  journey. 
He  made  the  journey  from  the  Eternal  City  to  the  Court 
of  Poland  on  foot,  and  thence  to  Transylvania,  and  called 
upon  all  the  leading  preachers  of  the  various  heresies  to 
assemble  at  Hermanstadt,  where  he  proposed  to  hold  pub- 
lic conferences,  which  proposition  they  accepted.  The 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  learned  Jesuit  was  not  for  one 
moment  doubted  by  any  of  the  learned  men  present  at 
this  controversy,  and  the  sectarians,  publicly  convicted  of 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUUIO    AQUAVIVA.    223 

error,  ignorance,  and  dishonesty,  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  retire.  In  order  to  consolidate  his  work,  and 
conform  to  the  royal  intentions,  the  victor  founded  col- 
leges in  that  province,  and  also  established  a  seminary  at 
Klausenburg. 

In  1583,  Anthony  Possevin  was  present  at  the  Grand 
Diet  of  Warsaw,  in  the  quality  of  Pope's  Legate,  where 
he  succeeded  in  obtaining  important  decisions  in  favor  of 
the  Catholic  faith.  At  this  time  Poland  had  become  so 
powerful  as  to  be  a  cause  of  anxiety  to  Germany,  and  every 
thing  tended  to  indicate  a  fearful  rupture  between  Rudolph 
and  Stephen.  In  order  to  prevent  a  war,  which  appeared 
to  be  inevitable,  the  two  sovereigns  agreed  to  submit  their 
difference  to  the  mediation  of  the  Pope,  begging,  at  the 
same  time,  that  he  might  be  represented  by  Father  Posse- 
vin, in  whom  both  had  the  most  implicit  confidence. 

His  Holiness  acceded  to  the  joint  desire  of  the  two  mon- 
archs  in  selecting  the  Jesuit  Father  as  his  representative, 
and  negotiations  were  at  once  commenced,  and  were  pro- 
gressing to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  both  parties,  when 
suddenly  a  clamor  arose  in  the  ranks  of  the  heretics 
throughout  the  country.  The  Sectarians  expressed  their 
astonishment  that  the  Germans  descended  so  low  as  to 
submit  to  the  conditions  imposed  upon  them  by  a  man  of 
mean  origin.  It  was,  in  their  estimation,  a  humiliating 
page  in  the  history  of  the  Empire,  and  one  of  which  pos- 
terity would  feel  ashamed.  They  also  expressed  their  as- 
tonishment that  the  Poles,  whose  sagacity  was  proverbial, 
should  submit  to  the  contempt  which  the  Society  of  Jesus 
evinced  for  them  in  appointing  such  an  arbitrator — one  who 
had  elucidated  the  most  difficult  propositions  and  solved 
the  most  intricate  questions  with  a  clearness  and  rapidity 
unparalleled.  The  two  sovereigns  knowing  the  source  of 
these  reports,  heeded  them  not,  and  the  negotiations  were 
21 


224  HISTORY    OF    THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

continued.  But  the  heretics  did  not  cease  to  agitate.  They 
could  not  forgive  the  society  for  the  influence  and  ability 
of  one  of  its  most  eminent  members;  and  Father  Aquaviva, 
who  was  alarmed  at  this  European  celebrity  of  one  of  his 
children,  had  an  interview  with  the  Pope,  and  begged  of 
His  Holiness  to  recall  Father  Possevin.  "  The  society," 
said  he,  "  was  founded  solely  for  the  glory  of  God  and  of 
his  Church,  and  not  to  serve  the  political  designs  of  sover- 
eigns. To  employ  our  Fathers  in  such  negotiations  is  to 
expose  them  to  the  danger  of  acquiring  a  taste  for  the 
world  totally  incompatible  with  their  vows  ;  it  is  launch- 
ing them  upon  a  perilous  sea,  and  it  might  lead  to  conse- 
quences deplorable  for  the  institute  and  for  the  Church. 
It  is  not  for  Possevin  that  I  fear  the  plaudits  of  the  world  ; 
his  virtue  is  known  to  me.  But  there  is  dang-er  for  the  so- 
ciety,  and  your  Holiness  must  preserve  us  from  it." 

Gregory  XIII  duly  appreciated  the  apprehensions  enter- 
tained by  the  General,  and,  however  much  he  might  regret 
it,  consented  to  recall  Possevin,  or  rather  to  relieve  him 
from  his  position  of  Nuncio.  No  sooner  was  he  thus  de- 
livered from  his  arduous  diplomatic  duties,  than  he  re- 
sumed his  apostolical  mission,  and  devoted  himself  ex- 
clusively to  his  holy  ministry — at  one  time  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  country  people,  at  another  sojourning  in  the 
towns,  combating  heresy  and  revivifying  the  faith,  found- 
ing colleges  in  the  principal  points  along  his  route,  until, 
^t  length,  he  received  the  surname  of  Apostle  of  the  North. 

II. 

One  day,  in  the  early  part  of  May,  1581,  a  man,  ap- 
parently about  forty  years  of  age,  presented  himself  at  the 
London  residence  of  I^ord  Walsingham,  then  Secretary  of 
State.  His  arrival  was  evidently  not  unexpected,  for  be 
assumed  the  bearing  of  sl  person  of  importance  and  stand- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     225 

ing.  ITis  name  was  George  Elliot.  Lord  Walsingham, 
without  paying  the  ordinary  courtesy  of  offering  him  a 
seat,  said,  disdainfully : 

*•  Well,  what  information  have  you  to  communicate  touch- 
ing the  well-being  of  the  state?" 

*'  I  have  to  inform  your  Lordship  that  I  can  perform  a 
service  that  can  not  be  too  well  paid  for,  and,  if  it  please 
your  Lordship  to  accede  to  what  I  may  request,  I  will 
undertake  to  render  that  service." 

"  Should  your  proposition  be  worth  the  value  you  set 
upon  it,  it  shall  be  entertained.     Speak." 

"  It  is  this :  Your  Lordship  is  aware  that  searches 
have  in  vain  been  made  to  discover  the  Catholic  priests, 
particularly  the  Jesuits ;  and  that,  on  the  29th  of  April, 
during  the  night,  the  houses  where  they  were  supposed 
to  be  secreted  were  forcibly  entered,  but  without  success. 
There  are,  as  you  are  aware,  two  Jesuits  who  do  more 
harm  than  all  the  rest  of  the  Catholic  priests  united. 
Robert  Parsons  and  Edmund  Campian  have,  in  one  year, 
made  more  than  ten  thousand  Catholics  in  England.*  I 
have  this  on  the  best  authority.  All  your  investigations 
have  produced  no  other  result  than  the  discovery  of 
Alexander  Briant,  their  friend, f  and  of  the  chalice  that 


*  A  few  weeks  after  this,  Dr.  Allen  wrote :  "  The  Fathers  have  made 
more  Catholics  in  England  in  one  year  than  they  could  have  done 
elsewhere  during  their  lifetime.  It  is  computed  that  there  are  ten 
thousand  more  Catholics  in  England  now  than  there  were  a  year 
ago." 

f  Alexander  Briant  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age.  He  under- 
went a  judicial  examination,  was  subjected  to  the  punishment  of 
hunger  and  thirst,  and  to  the  torture  of  the  "  thumb-screw,"  to 
make  him  reveal  the  whereabouts  of  the  Jesuits;  but  in  vain. 
Aft«r  each  application  of  the  torture,  he  replied  :  "  I  will  not  tell 
you.  Not  that  I  do  not  know.  I  have  seen  them,  and  lived  under 
the  same  roof  with  them.  Subject  me  to  what  torment  you  please, 
you  will  never  learn  any  thing  more  from  me." 


226  HISTORY    or    the    society    of    JESUS. 

was  used  at  the  mass  on  the  day  preceding  his  arrest. 
You  see  I  am  well  informed." 

"What  do  you  desire?"  continued  the  minister.  "Be 
brief.     Can  you  secure  them?" 

"  If  your  Lordship  will  insure  me  wealth  and  honor, 
I  will  guarantee  to  discover,  not  Robert  Parsons,  whom  I 
io  not  know,  and  who  may,  therefore,  escape  me,  but 
Edmund  Campian,  whom  I  do  know,  and  who  is  of  far 
more  importance,  as  being  the  author  of  the  '  Ten 
Reasons.^  "* 

"Are  you  sure  to  succeed  ?"  asked  Lord  Walsingham, 
casting  a  withering  look  of  contempt  upon  Elliot. 

"  Yes,  my  Lord,  I  am  quite  sure." 

"You  have,  then,  kept  up  correspondence  with  the 
Papists?" 

"  I  have,  my  Lord," 

"  Well,  you  shall  have  riches,  if  not  honors ;  that  will 
suffice,  I  presume?" 

"  Your  Lordship  will  understand  that  I  shall  require 
to  be  secured  against  the  revenge  of  the  Catholics,  and 
that  the  Government  will  assist  me,  should  it  be  neces- 
sary, to  seize  upon  my  prey  whenever  I  may  discover  it." 

"All  requisite  means  shall  be  furnished  you;  but  you 
oflfer  poor  security  for  yourself.  Take  care  what  use  you 
make  of  the  power  given  to  you." 

*  This  treatise  had  been  privately  printed  in  the  house  of  John 
Stonar,  and  subsequently  extensively  circulated  in  the  city  of  Lon- 
don. It  combated  the  errors  of  Anglicanism  with  such  ability  and 
moderation,  and  the  style  was  so  attractive,  that  its  popularity  was 
extraordinary,  and  led  to  numerous  conversions.  The  Protestant 
ministers,  unable  to  refute  its  arguments,  declared  it  an  offense 
against  the  laws.  They  assumed  that,  under  pretext  of  making 
converts,  the  Catholics  conspired  against  the  Q-ueen,  and  that  the 
Jesuits,  urged  by  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain,  were  organizing 
a  plot  against  the  life  of  Elizabeth.  The  author  of  this  work  was, 
therefore,  declared  guilty  of  high  treason. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     227 

"As  a  material  guarantee,  I  at  once  hand  over  to  your 
Lordship  John  Payne,  a  Catholic  priest.  He  is  with  his 
parents,  where  you  will  find  him." 

"  He  who  has  always  been  your  friend  ?  That  is 
enough.     Go;   your  commission  shall  be  sent  to  you." 

These  latter  words  were  addressed  to  George  Elliot, 
in  a  tone  of  profound  disgust.  George  had  just  betrayed 
his  benefactor  as  a  pledge  of  his  future  infamy  ! 

A  few  days  afterward,  John  Payne  ascended  the  scaf- 
fold, whence  his  soul  took  its  flight  to  heaven.  The 
apostate  informer  received  his  royal  commission,  and 
Elizabeth  commanded  the  governors  of  the  provinces  to 
obey  his  orders. 

In  the  mean  while,  Robert  Parsons  had  ordered  Ed- 
mund Campian,  in  order  to  evade  the  continuous  search 
that  was  being  made  by  the  spies  of  the  Queen,  to  retire 
to  the  county  of  Norfolk,  where  he  was  known  only  by 
name.  On  his  road,  Father  Campian  had  to  pass  by 
Lyford  House,  which  was  occupied  by  a  family  named 
Yates,  where  he  had  obtained  permission  to  stop,  in 
order  to  satisfy  the  ardent  desire  of  its  members,  who 
had  frequently  entreated  him  to  aiford  them  the  consola- 
tions of  his  ministry.  After  remaining  some  time,  ad- 
ministering the  sacraments  and  comforting  those  who  had 
the  advantage  of  his  advice  and  spiritual  aid,  he  was 
about  to  take  his  departure,  when  the  Catholics  of  the 
surrounding  localities  earnestly  entreated  him  to  remain 
over  the  following  day,  which  was  Sunday.  The  good 
Father  could  not  refuse,  and  consented  to  postpone  his 
departure.     This  was  the  15th  of  July,  1581. 

From    an    early  hour    on    the   following   morning,   the 

servant  who  attended  at  the  gate  of  the  mansion  noticed, 

among  those  who  came  to  attend  mass,  a  person  whom  he 

had  formerly  known  in   London,   but  whom   he   had  not 

21* 


228  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

seen  for  a  long  time.     After  the    interchange  of  the  or- 
dinary salutations,  the  new-comer  said  : 

"  Seeing  many  persons  making  toward  the  house,  and 
thinking,  perhaps,  that  you  were  so  happy  as  to  have  a 
priest  here,  and  to-day  being  Sunday,  and  all  those  who 
have  the  opportunity  being  compelled  to  hear  mass,  I 
thought  I  would  request  the  favor  of  being  allowed  to  be 
present." 

"  Most  willingly,"  answered  the  faithful  domestic. 
"  Our  master  is  but  too  happy  to  afford  the  opportunity 
to  all  the  Catholics  of  the  country  to  attend  the  chapel, 
for  there  is  no  danger  of  Catholics  informino;  aeainst 
him.     I  will  at  once  conduct  you  to  the  chapel." 

"  And  who  is  the  priest  you  are  fortunate  enough  to 
have  here  ?"  asked  the  stranger. 

"  I  do  not  know  his  name.  He  does  not  belonsr  to  this 
country,  for  none  of  the  Catholics  here  know  him." 

The  visitor  took  his  place  in  the  chapel  near  the  door, 
and,  during  the  mass,  exhibited  a  feverish  agitation.  The 
officiating  priest  was  known  to  him.  The  mass  over,  the 
same  priest  delivered  an  affecting  discourse,  which  the 
unknown  visitor  seemed  to  lis-ten  to  with  distraction,  or  as 
though  he  were  preoccupied.  A  close  observer  would 
have  been  alarmed  at  the  expression  of  his  countenance  ; 
the  discerning  physiognomist  might  have  there  read  the 
two  words  apostasy^  treachery;  for  that  personage  was 
none  other  than  George  Elliot.  No  sooner  was  the  service 
concluded  than  he  departed  hastily,  and  sought  the  near- 
est town,  where  he  secured  the  services  of  the  soldiery, 
with  whom  he  returned  to  Lyford,  and  had  the  house 
surrounded.  But  Father  Campian,  who  had  seen  the 
soldiers  approaching,  said  : 

"  It  is  I  whom  they  seek,  and  God  forbid  that  others 
should  suffer  death  with  me  or  on  my  account!" 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER   CLAUDIO  AQUA  VIVA.     229 

""What  are  you  doing?"  said  the  lady  of  the  mansion, 
arresting  the  progress  of  the  Father.  "  You  are  about  to 
present  yourself  to  your  executioners  !  Wait,  at  least, 
until  they  find  you.  Persecution  has  made  us  ingenious. 
For  our  sakes,  you  must  follow  me.  I  am  going  to 
conceal  you." 

Father  Campian  yielded ;  and  it  was  high  time,  for 
scarcely  had  he  attained  his  hiding-place,  into  which  he 
was  accompanied  by  two  other  priests,  when  the  apostate 
traitor  entered  the  house,  preceded  by  the  agents  of  the 
Queen.  He  immediately  instituted  a  thorough  search 
from  cellar  to  attic.  He  questioned  the  servants,  sounded 
the  floors,  the  walls,  and  the  ceilings ;  but  no  Jesuit  was 
to  be  found.  Night  approached,  and  he  took  his  depart- 
ure, but  returned  again  the  following  day,  and  renewed 
his  search,  without  any  better  result.  The  traitor  was 
furious.  He  desisted  from  further  investigation,  and  de- 
termined upon  quitting  the  place.  In  descending  the 
stairs,  he  uttered  a  last  bitter  imprecation,  and  dashed 
against  the  wall  the  instrument  which  he  had  used  to 
probe  the  doors  and  hiding-places  of  the  house.  The 
wall  gave  back  a  hollow  sound,  whereupon  the  soldiers 
were  orcJ.ered  to  break  it  in,  the  apostate  himself  striking 
it  with  maddened  frenzy.  The  edifice  appeared  to  trem- 
ble, and,  a  few  stones  being  removed  from  their  original 
position,  fell  to  the  ground,  causing  an  aperture,  from  which 
Edmund  Campian  made  his  appearance,  with  his  hands 
and  eyes  raised  toward  heaven.  Two  secular  priests  were 
by  his  side,  for  they  had  accompanied  him  to  his  hiding- 
place,  and  would  now  share  his  fate.  Elliot  at  once  com- 
manded the  Queen's  agents  to  seize  the  three  Papist  priests, 
and  he  had  them  incarcerated  provisionally  in  the  prison 
of  the  nearest  town.  Soon  afterward,  orders  were  issued 
by  Elizabeth  for  the    removal   of  the  Jesuit  to   London. 

The  22d  of  July  was  a  Saturday,  and  at  an  early  hour 


230  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  the  morning,  when  the  market  was  thronged  with  an 
influx  of  the  lower  orders,  the  apostle  prisoner,  in  custody 
of  his  guard,  arrived  at  the  gates  of  the  city.  At  the 
same  time,  the  populace,  who  had  been  bribed  for  the 
purpose,  sent  forth  loud  and  continuous  plaudits  for  the 
Queen,  which  were  followed  by  vociferations  and  mal- 
edictions against  the  Church  and  the  Jesuits.  Upon 
the  good  Father,  who  was  a  perfect  stranger  to  them, 
they  heaped  imprecations  and  abuse.  All  they  knew  was, 
that  some  one  had  propagated  the  report  that  he  was  a 
dangerous  conspirator. 

The  Jesuit,  ever  gentle  and  humble,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  grave  and  dignified,  was  to  be  seen  in  the  distance, 
bound  like  a  felon,  and  placed  on  a  tall  horse,  his  hands 
tied  behind  his  back,  his  feet  fastened  together  with  a  cord, 
while  upon  his  head  was  placed  a  hat,  to  which  was  affixed 
a  placard,  with  the  inscription,  in  large  letters,  "  Edmund 
Campian,  a  seditious  Jesuit."  The  good  Father  smiled 
at  the  ignorant  rabble  who  surrounded  him,  and  prayed 
Almighty  God  to  forgive  tliem^  for  that  they  knew  not  what 
they  did.  But  suddenly  the  fury  of  the  populace  was  at- 
tracted in  another  direction.  It  was  no  longer  the  pris- 
oner ;  it  is  no  more  that  innocent  victim  of  error  and 
tyranny  that  the  crowd  insulted  and  execrated — it  is  the 
traitor  apostate,  George  Elliot!  He  had  sought  to  wit- 
ness and  gloat  over  the  humiliation  of  that  Jesuit  whom, 
in  bygone  times,  he  had  called  by  the  endearing  term  of 
Father,  and  whom  he  had  so  recently  betrayed  and  sold 
for  a  few  pieces  of  gold.  Knowing  the  road  by  which 
the  apostle  was  to  pass,  he  had  stopped  among  the  crowd 
to  add  his  invectives  to  those  of  the  enraged  mob,  when 
suddenly  a  loud  voice  was  distinctly  heard,  above  the  rest, 
crying  out : 

"Behold  the  man  who  betrayed  him!" 

"Who  is  it?" 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATUER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     231 


"  It  is  he.  It  is  George  Elliot.  It  is  he  who  sold  him 
for  money !  " 

"Shame,  you  Judas!  accursed,  Iscariot !  To  the  river 
with  the  traitor !  to  the  gibbet  with  the  Judas !  No  ; 
to  the  stake!" 

No  one  now  took  any  more  notice  of  Father  Campian. 
All  they  seemed  to  desire  was  to  wreak  their  vengeance 
on  the  traitor  Elliot,  who,  on  his  part,  had  little  expected 
to  hear  such  maledictions  against  himself.* 

On  arriving  at  the  Tower,  Edmund  Campian  was  handed 
over  to  the  governor  of  that  prison.  Lord  Opton,  who  had 
him  placed  in  a  subterranean  dungeon,  which  was  so  small 
that  he  could  not  stand  upright,  and  so  contracted  that  he 
could  not  stretch  his  limbs.  Thus  cramped  up,  deprived 
of  light,  air,  and  the  possibility  of  even  stretching  his 
weary  limbs,  he  remained  imprisoned  during  nine  long  days. 

On  the  night  of  the  2d  of  August,  the  agents  of  the 
Queen  made  their  appearance  in  his  dungeon,  and,  having 
ordered  him  to  follow  them,  conducted  him  to  the  palace 
of  Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of  Leicester.  The  Queen's  favor- 
ite was  accompanied  by  the  Earl  of  Bedford  and  two  of 
the  Secretaries  of  State.  Edmund  Campian,  pale  and 
emaciated  from  excessive  suffering,  his  hands  still  tied, 
appeared  before  these  high  and  mighty  personages  with 
a  noble  and  lofty  bearing,  which  commanded  their  re- 
spect. The  Earl  of  Leicester  commenced  by  asking  him 
this  question  :  , 

"  With  what  mission  were  you  and  Father  Parsons  in- 
trusted by  the  Pope  ?" 

*The  only  reward  he  received  for  his  treachery  was  a  few  pieces 
of  gold,  sent  him  by  Lord  Walsingham,  who  requested  that  he  might 
not  be  further  importuned  by  him.  Forsaken  by  all  his  former 
friends,  and  becoming  an  object  of  contem})t  and  disgust  to  all, 
George  Elliot  fell  into  such  a  low  state  of  misery  and  wretchedness 
that  he  was  literally  eaten  up  by  vermin. 


232  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"To  keep  alive  the  faith  in  Catholic  hearts,  to  bring 
back  to  the  right  path  those  who  had  allowed  themselves 
to  be  led  into  the  ways  of  error,  and  to  defend  Catholic 
truths  ao-ainst  those  who  attacked  them." 

At  this  point  another  personage  entered  the  chamber  ; 
it  was  the  Queen.  The  prisoner  saluted  her  respectfully, 
but  with  a  dignified  manner  that  did  not  escape  the  pen- 
etrating eye  of  Elizabeth. 

"  Do  you  believe  that  I  am  really  Queen  of  England  ?" 
asked  she. 

Father  Campian  made  an  affirmative  inclination,  but 
did  not  utter  a  single  word.  The  Queen  resumed,  strongly 
emphasizing  every  word  : 

"  Well,  I  offer  you  life,  liberty,  wealth,  and  honors  if 
you  will  serve  me." 

"  I  shall  ever  be  your  subject,"  replied  the  distin- 
guished Jesuit;  "but,  while  I  am  an  Englishman,  I  am, 
first  of  all,  a  Christian — a  Catholic  !  " 

Elizabeth  retired,  without  uttering  another  syllable. 
Her  avowed  end  in  the  persecution  of  the  Catholics  was 
the  punishment  of  conspirators.  She  was  conscious  of 
the  odium  that  her  cruel  tyranny  would  attach  to  her 
name,  and  she  sought  to  justify  it  by  political  motives. 
It  was  computed  that,  from  the  15th  July  to  the  31st  of 
August  of  the  preceding  year,  1580,  fifty  thousand  Catho- 
lics had  been  arrested  and  imprisoned,  and  deprived  of 
their  property,  by  confiscation,  for  refusing  to  attend  the 
Protestant  services  and  sermons.  In  the  jail  record  this 
was  the  only  crime  attributed  to  them,  but  in  that  crime 
the  Queen  saw  a  conspiracy  against  her  life. 

Father  Campian  was  conveyed  back  to  his  dungeon,  at 
the  Tower.  A  few  days  afterward,  he  was  taken  to  the 
torture-chamber,  where  the  magistrates  put  the  following 
questions  to  him,  which  they  had  previously  committed  to 


writing 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     233 

"  At  whose  instigation,  or  by  whose  order,  are  you  in 
London?  For  what  purpose  are  you  here?  Wlio  are 
those  who  have  lodged,  supported,  and  assisted  you? 
Where,  and  in  what  manner,  have  you  had  printed  the 
book  entitled  'Ten  Reasonsl  Where,  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  whom,  have  you  celebrated  mass?  Who  are  those 
whom  you  have  converted  to  Popery?  What  are  the  sins 
of  those  whose  confessions  you  have  heard?  What  is 
your  opinion  of  the   Bull  of  Pius  V?"* 

All  the  implements  of  torture  were  there,  and  the  ex- 
ecutioners were  beside  them.  Edmund  Campian  had 
maintained  a  perfect  silence,  and  waited  impassibly  until 
the  magistrates  had  exhausted  their  list  of  questions, 
when  he  said  to  them,  with  the  same  serenity  and  dignity 
which  he  had  maintained  throughout: 

'■  Among  the  questions  you  have  just  propounded  to 
me,  there  are  several  which  an  honest  man  must  leave 
unanswered,  and  some  which  a  priest  must  not  under- 
stand; but  there  is  one  which  my  conscience  allows  me 
to  answer,  and  I  will  do  so.  My  treatise  of  the  '■Ten 
Reasons '  was  sent  by  me  to  Father  Johnson  and  Thomas 
Pound." 

This  was,  in  fact,  no  answer  at  all.  Johnson  and 
Pound  being  in  prison,  it  was  well  known  that  they  had 
received  this  book.  Orders  were  immediately  given  to 
place  Father  Campian  on  the  rack.  The  Jesuit  under- 
went the  torture  without  even  a  murmur  of  complaint. 
Eight  days  afterward,  he  was  subjected  to  a  repetition 
of  the  same  torment,  which  he  bore  with  the  same  pa- 
tience, fortitude,  and  serenity.  When  they  considered 
him  sufficiently  exhausted  by  excessive  suffering,  the 
ministers  contended  that  the  Jesuit  had  not  been  put  to 
the  test,  for  they  knew  that  the  Queen  desired  either  his 

*  By  this  Bull,  Piu3  V  excommunicated  Elizabeth. 


234:  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

death  or  his  apostasy.  He  was,  therefore,  conducted  to 
the  Parish  church,  where  Alexander  Newell,  dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  and  Doctor  Day,  rector  of  Eton  College,  were  in 
attendance  to  lay  before  him  their  charges  and  accusations 
against  Popery  and  the  Society  of  Jesus.  They  hoped  that 
the  learned  Father  Edmund,  having  no  more  strength,  and 
dragged  thus  before  them  in  a  dying  condition,  would  be  in- 
capable of  answering  them,  and  that  they  might  triumph- 
antly publish  his  defeat.  He  was  allowed  the  assistance  of 
Father  Rodolph  Sherwin,  who  was  likewise  a  prisoner,  in 
order  to  prove  the  liberty  of  defense  accorded  him;  but 
he  was  prohibited  from  speaking  upon  any  other  points 
than  those  upon  which  he  was  challenged.  The  attend- 
ance on  the  occasion  was  numerous.  Among  the  rest 
was  the  Governor  of  the  Tower. 

When  Father  Campian  appeared  on  the  stand,  every 
eye  was  turned  upon  him,  and  the  martyr,  without  utter- 
ing a  word,  showed  the  weakness  of  his  body  and  dis- 
played the  vigor  of  his  faith.  The  appearance  of  his 
limbs,  which  were  either  bruised  or  dislocated,  plainly  told 
the  tortures  he  had  endured. 

"You  have  scarcely  been   touched,"  said  Lord  Opton. 

"  I  can  speak  of  that  more  knowingly  than  you,"  re- 
plied the  sufferer;    "for  you  have  but  given  the  orders." 

The  theological  discussion  was  most  animated,  and  was 
supported  by  Father  Campian  with  a  power  of  logic  and 
eloquence  which  was  little  expected  by  his  adversaries. 
They  had  stated  that  there  would  be  four  days'  discus- 
sion, but  this  first  sitting  appeared  to  them  more  than 
sufficient,  and  they  declared  that  it  should  not  be  con- 
tinued. Lord  Opton  had  just  asserted  that  the  Jesuit, 
under  the  torture  of  the  rack,  had  revealed  all  that 
they  wanted.  The  illustrious  martyr  was  not  allowed  the 
opportunity  of  making  known  his  protestations  against 
this    infamous  calumny,    and  was   taken    back    to  prison. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     235 

Thomas  Pound  received  the  information  in  his  dungeon 
that  Father  Canipian  had  betrayed  not  only  family  se- 
crets, but  even  those  of  the  confessional;  but  he  refused 
to  give  credence  to  the  scandalous  report.  Nevertheless, 
he  informed  his  brother  martyr  of  the  trouble  and  the 
affliction  it  had  caused  him.  Father  Campian  immedi- 
ately replied : 

"  I  feel  that  I  have  the  courage,  and  I  trust  that  God 
will  give  me  the  strength,  never  to  allow  them  to  force 
from  me,  by  all  the  tortures  they  may  apply,  a  single 
word  that  may  be  prejudicial  to  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ." 

Lord  Opton  intercepted  this  letter,  and  used  it  to  prove 
the  existence  of  a  conspiracy  of  the  Catholic  sovereigns 
and  the  Pope  against  the  life  of  Elizabeth. 

On  the  18th  September,  Father  Edmund  was  confronted 
by  two  new  opponents,  in  the  persons  of  Doctors  Good  and 
Folke,  who  were  this  time  triumphantly  to  defeat  and  con- 
found him.  Indeed,  in  order  to  facilitate  his  overthrow, 
they  took  the  precaution  of  putting  him  to  the  torture  for 
the  third  time  before  conducting-  him  to  the  meetins;.  But 
they  had  not  taken  into  consideration  the  all-powerful 
assistance  of  Almighty  God.  The  heroic  apostle  so  vig- 
orously sustained  this  new  attack,  and  so  courageously  de- 
fended the  faith  of  the  Church,  that  the  Earl  of  Arundel, 
son  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  who  attended  the  discussion, 
unable  longer  to  resist  the  convincing  arguments  of  Father 
Edmund,  publicly  declared  himself  a  Catholic. 

The  holy  martyr  had  to  atone  for  this  triumph  by  re- 
newed tortures  ;  and,  while  the  executioners  tore  his  flesh 
asunder,  and  dislocated  his  limbs,  he  sang  the  Te  Deum^ 
and  his  persecutors  despaired  of  ever  conquering  his 
sublime  courage.  On  two  subsequent  occasions  was  he 
examined,  as  were  also  several  other  Jesuits  and  some 
secular  priests,  who,  like  himself,  were  state  prisoners.  At 
22 


236  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

length,  on  the  20th  November,  they  were  all  brought  up 
before  the  Court  at  Westminster,  where  Father  Campian, 
as  spokesman  of  the  party,  answered  the  six  questions 
that  were  put  to  the  accused : 

*'  These  are  not  the  questions  to  put  before  this  tribunal, 
which  was  constituted  for  the  purpose  of  tr3ing  actual 
deeds,  and  not  of  prying  into  secret  thoughts.  Its  duty 
is  to  try  those  brought  before  it  by  the  production  of  wit- 
nesses, and  not  by  inquisition.  The  University,  with  theo- 
logian against  theologian,  is  the  proper  place  for  these  dis- 
cussions and  controversies,  which  should  be  supported  by 
arguments  drawn  from  Holy  Scripture  or  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers.  Among  those  who  are  to  judge  me  from  my 
answers,  I  do  not  find  one  theologian,  not  even  a  literary 
man.     I  have,  then,  no  explanation  to  offer." 

We  will  not  enter  into  the  horrible  details  of  the  tortures 
which  the  missionary  and  his  companions  had  to  endure. 
We  will  simply  remark,  that  they  never  for  a  moment  lost 
their  patience  or  serenity.  And  we  would  request  the  reader 
to  bear  in  mind  these  remarkable  lines  of  the  Protestant 
Schaell :  "  In  fine,  by  the  means  of  one  of  those  conspira- 
cies which  party  spirit  has  ever  been  ready  to  invent,  means 
were  found  by  which  Campian  and  twelve  of  his  pretended 
accomplices  were  found  guilty  of  high  treason,  and  con- 
demned to  death.  Campian,  and  some  of  his  companions, 
who  might  be  charged  with  having  sought,  in  their  fanati- 
cal ardor,  the  honor  of  martyrdom,  but  who  were  certainly 
innocent  of  any  political  offense,  were  executed  on  the  1st 
December,  1581.  The  execution  of  the  others  was  post- 
poned, in  order  to  afford  the  people  the  occasional  diver- 
sion of  a  public  execution."* 

Yet  Protestants  complain  of  the  intolerance  of  Cath- 
olics ! 

*  Cours  d'histoire  des  IJtats  Europeens.     Tome  xviii,  page  2. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.  237 

When  the  news  of  the  martyrdom  of  Edmund  Campian 
was  announced  in  the  English  College  at  Rome,  one  com- 
mon cry  escaped  from  the  young  hearts  of  those  future 
apostles.  They  all  requested  to  be  allowed  the  honor  of 
replacing  these  valorous  champions  who  had  just  ascended 
to  heaven ;  but  only  a  few  obtained  this  favor. 

III. 
From  the  very  foundation  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  its 
members  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  themselves  ac- 
cused of  being  the  cause  of  all  occurrences,  misfortunes, 
and  plagues,  as  well  as  of  all  sorts  of  crimes.  They  were 
then  little  surprised,  in  1582,  to  learn  that  they  were  charged 
with  having  caused  confusion  in  the  seasons,  in  order  to  suc- 
ceed more  surely  and  more  quickly  in  destroying  the  world. 
In  every  age  calumny  has  delighted  in  taking  advantage 
of  human  credulity.  A  learned  man  of  the  period  of  which 
we  write.  Dr.  Lilio  of  Verona,  had  attempted  to  reform  the 
old  calendar.  The  Pope  had  appointed  a  congregation  to 
investigate  this  proposition  of  reform,  the  carrying  out  of 
which  appeared  to  be  beset  with  numerous  and  insur- 
mountable obstacles,  and  His  Holiness  had  intrusted  a 
Jesuit,  celebrated  for  his  astronomical  and  mathematical 
knowledge,  with  the  solution  of  these  difficulties.  This 
Jesuit,  who  was  a  member  of  the  congregation  convened 
by  Gregory  XIII,  was  Father  Christopher  Clavius  of  Bam- 
berg, in  Bavaria,  then  commonly  called  the  Catholic 
Euclid.  The  idea  met  the  approval  of  Father  Clavius, 
and  he  changed  Dr.  Lilio's  plan,  so  as  to  render  the  exe- 
cution of  this  reform  not  only  practicable  but  perpetual. 
In  order  to  convey  some  conception  of  the  theory  to  the 
Pope,  he  wrote  his  Computatio  Ecclesiastlca.  His  plan, 
which  was  admired  as  the  solution  of  a  problem  which, 
until  then,  had  been  regarded  as  insoluble,  and  the  utility 
of  which  would  be  invaluable    to    the  entire  world,  was 


238  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

definitely  approved  by  Gregory  XIII,  who  ordered  that 
henceforth  it  should  serve  to  regulate  the  ecclesias-tical  year. 

The  Gregorian  calendar,  as  it  was  termed,  was  at  once 
adopted  by  the  Catholic  sovereigns  ;  but  "  the  Protestants 
of  all  denominations,"  says  Voltaire,  in  his  Essai  sur  hs 
Moeiirs,  "obstinately  persisted  in  refusing  to  receive  from 
the  Pope  a  truth  which,  had  it  been  proposed  by  the  Turks, 
they  would  have  willingly  accepted."  A  general  com- 
motion against  the  Jesuits  arose  thereupon  throughout 
Germany.  "  Not  satisfied  with  arresting  every -where  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation,  and  of  restoring  to  Popery  so 
many  Calvinists  and  Lutherans,  the  Jesuits  have  upset  the 
calendar,  changed  the  seasons,  and  wish  to  turn  the  world 
upside  down.  It  is  now  our  turn  to  overthrow  the  Jesuits, 
by  forcing  them  to  disappear  forever.  Is  it  not  enough, 
added  they,  to  rule  both  the  people  and  kings,  to  consti- 
tute themselves  the  arbitrators  of  nations,  to  determine  be- 
tween sovereigns  whether  there  shall  be  peace  or  war? 
Was  there  ever  known  a  religious  order  that  exercised  such 
influence?  And  what  danger  may  not  be  feared  from  a 
power  which  spreads  itself  over  the  entire  universe?  It 
is  high  time  that  the  society  should  be  destroyed,  annihi- 
lated. In  the  mean  while  the  calendar  which  they  have 
invented  must  be  rejected." 

These  exaggerations  spread  even  throughout  Catholic 
countries,  and  then,  as  now,  instead  of  tracing  them  to  their 
true  origin,  the  people  implicitly  and  passively  believed 
them  ;  and  then,  as  in  our  own  time,  no  one  questioned 
whether  the  reports  were  probable  or  not.  This  would 
have  needed  reflection,  and,  without  investigating  the 
matter,  they  found  it  easier  to  receive  an  opinion  already 
formed  than  to  take  the  trouble  of  examining  for  them- 
selves. From  time  immemorial,  the  spirit  of  darkness  has 
seriously  relied  upon  the  general  credulity,  and  it  must  be 
admitted,  no  matter  how  humiliating  to  human  pride  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     239 

fact  may  oe,  that  it  has  seldom  been  without  some  share 
of  success. 

While  the  heretics  were  thus  agitating  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Catholics  the  necessity  of  abolishing  the  Order  of  the 
Jesuits,  Pope  Gregory  XIII  inaugurated,  with  great  pomp, 
the  magnificent  church  of  tlie  G(^su,  which  Cardinal 
Alexander  Farnese  had  erected  at  his  own  expense.  This 
ceremony  took  place  on  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption, 
1583. 

This  marked  ftivor  annoyed  the  Protestants  still  more, 
and  they  resolved  to  strike  a  fatal  blow  against  the  soci- 
ety. According  to  the  calendar  of  which  Father  Clavius 
was  the  author,  Lent  fell  much  earlier  in  1585  than 
usual.  The  Senate  of  Augsburg  had  adopted  the  calen- 
dar without  having  previously  consulted  the  butchers  of 
the  city,  most  of  whom  were  Protestants,  and,  conse- 
quently, opposed  to  this  innovation,  which  they  refused 
to  acknowledge.  On  hearing  of  the  alteration  ordered 
by  the  Senate,  the  butchers  rebelled,  under  pretext  that, 
not  having  made  their  arrangements,  for  want  of  informa- 
tion, with  regard  to  the  fast  to  be  observed  at  an  earlier 
date  than  usual,  they  were  entirely  ruined.  In  order  to 
quell  the  mutiny,  it  was  found  necessary  to  have  recourse 
to  force. 

At  Easter,  their  shops  were  all  closed,  and  there  was 
no  meat  to  be  had.  The  Senate  wished  to  compel  them 
to  open  the  shops,  but  their  answer  was,  that  the  proper 
time  of  abstinence  had  arrived,  and  that  the  Catholics 
must  now  do  penance.  The  Senate  immediately  took 
measures  to  remedy  the  inconvenience  thus  caused  by  the 
Protestants  ;  but  the  butchers  still  persisted  in  declaring 
themselves  ruined,  and  suddenly  attacked  the  house  of 
the  Jesuits,  threatening  to  demolish  it,  and  to  bury  all 
the  Fathers  in  its  ruins.  They  were  soon  aided  and 
abetted  by  the  populace. 
22* 


240  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"  No,"  they  cried,  "  do  not  pull  it  down.  Set  fire 
to  it!" 

'-Yes!  Fire!  fire!"  yelled  the  butchers.  "Let  us 
burn  the  Jesuits  and  their  accursed  calendar  !" 

"  No  more  Jesuits  ! "  repeated  these  madmen.  '  No 
more  Jesuits  !   no  Pope  !   but,  above  all,  no  new  calendar  !" 

"  Stop  !  Hold  !  The  Duke  of  Bavaria  !  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria  !  He  is  entering  the  city  at  the  head  of  five 
hundred  horse  ! "  cried  a  woman  in  the  crowd. 

"  Is  it  a  fact?     Are  you  sure  it  is  he  ?  " 

"  It  is  certainly  he.  Beware  of  sedition  ! "  continued 
the  woman. 

"  Let  us  be  off!  Here  is  the  Duke  of  Bavaria!  Let 
us  be  ofi"!" 

And  the  crowd  dispersed,  as  quickly  as  possible,  in 
every  direction.  In  ten  minutes  perfect  quiet  prevailed 
in  all  parts.  The  Duke  of  Bavaria  did  not  make  his 
appearance.  He  had  not  shown  himself  any-where.  But 
the  Senate  was  holding  its  sitting;  the  house  of  the  Jes- 
uits was  about  to  be  fired  ;  and  a  good  woman,  terrified 
by  the  calamity  which  she  saw  was  inevitable,  thought  she 
would  avert  it  by  starting  a  false  alarm,  and  anticipate 
the  arrival  of  the  Duke,  who,  having  been  informed  of 
the  tumult,  could,  doubtless,  not  fail  to  make  his  appear- 
ance very  soon. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  troubles,  the  society  worked 
for  its  only  end,  the  greater  glory  of  God.  It  already 
counted  in  heaven  too  many  holy  martyrs  and  confessors 
to  fear  any  thing  from  the  impotent  rage  of  the  demon 
whom  it  had  so  triumphantly  defeated  every-where. 
Nothing  could  stop  it  on  its  onward  apostolical  course. 

China  had  just  been  opened  to  its  zeal.  The  great 
Xavier,  when  dying  in  sight  of  that  land  of  promise, 
which  his  heart  burned  to  evangelize  and  convert,  had 
earnestly  begged  of  Almighty  God  to  open  its  vast  field 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     241 

to  the  labors  of  his  brothers;  and  Fathers  Michael  Rug- 
gieri  and  Pazia  had  the  happiness  of  arriving  among  this 
benighted  people,  the  former  in  1581,  and  the  latter  in  the 
succeeding  year.  They  were  followed,  in  1583,  by  the  cele- 
brated Father  Matthew  llicci,  of  Macerata,  On  the  15th 
of  July,  of  the  same  year,  the  Society  of  Jesus  witnessed 
the  glorious  phalanx  of  its  martyrs  increased.  Fathers 
Rudolphus  Aquaviva,  nephew  of  the  General,  Pacheo, 
Berna,  Anthony  Francisco,  and  Brother  Arana,  were  im- 
molated on  the  same  day  by  the  savages  of  the  island  of 
Salcete,  whom  they  had  come  to  convert.^ 

In   Italy,   the   society  enjoyed-  a  wonderful  popularity, 
and  exercised   an   influence  almost  prodigious.     One   ex-- 
ample  will  suffice  to  prove  it : 

At  that  period,  Naples  was  under  the  Spanish  rule,  to 
which  she  reluctantly  submitted.  She  only  awaited  an 
opportunity  to  throw  it  oflf,  and  endeavor  to  regain  her 
original  independence.  The  Neapolitans,  finally,  finding 
a  pretext  for  an  outbreak  in  the  dearness  of  provisions, 
took  forcible  possession  of  the  market-stalls,  and,  rifling 
them  of  their  contents,  traversed  the  streets  uttering  se 
ditious  cries.  The  Governor,  Vincent  Staraci,  interposed 
his  authority,  whereupon  he  was  mercilessly  massacred. 
The  rebellion  was  assuming  a  most  alarming  aspect,  when, 
at  the  critical  moment,  a  Jesuit  appeared  in  the  midst  of 
the  exasperated  multitude,  whom  he  addressed,  in  a  voice 
that  was  heard  above  the  tumultuous  riot,  and  succeeded 
in  calming  the  people  maddened  with  fury.  They  desisted 
from  their  violent  proceedings  and  bowed  their  heads,  on 
hearing  the  words  of  the  apostle  ;  listened  to  his  rebukes, 
approved  his  counsels,  and  no  longer  offered  the  slightest 
opposition.     This  Jesuit  was  Father  Charles  de  Mastrilli. 


*  Their  precious  remains  were  taken  to  Goa,  and  are  still  pre- 
eerved. 


242  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

He  was  still  addressing  tliein,  when  the  other  Fathers  of 
the  college,  as  well  as  those  of  the  professed  house,  were 
seen  approaching  in  procession  and  chanting  the  Litany 
of  the  Saints.  They  passed  through  the  congregated 
mass,  dividing  it  into  two  parts.  One  portion  they  con- 
ducted to  the  cathedral,  the  other  to  the  Church  of  the 
Annunciation  ;  and  there  the  people,  who  had  yielded  to 
the  counsel  of  a  single  Jesuit,  and  had  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  led,  as  a  docile  child,  to  the  foot  of  the  altar, 
manifested  their  heart-felt  sorrow.  They  pledged  them- 
selves to  return  to  their  various  occupations,  and  to  be- 
have, henceforth,  as  a  submissive  and  faithful  people. 
They  were  true  to  their  promise. 

What  army  ever  obtained  a  like  victory  over  a  people 
in  rebellion  ?  It  is,  nevertheless,  this  kind  of  influence, 
so  gentle,  and  yet  so  efficacious  and  salutary  in  its  opera- 
tion, that  has  ever  been  brought  up  against  the  Jesuits 
as  a  crime,  either  by  dishonest  Protestants  or  by  un- 
thinking Catholics.  We  may  be  allowed  to  say  that,  among 
those  who  are  ambitious  of  popularity,  few  are  friendly  to 
the  Jesuits,  and  yet  many  would  desire  to  possess  their 
power  of  winning  the  heart  by  convincing  the  mind. 
Willingly  would  they  excuse  this  influence  in  themselves, 
which,  in  the  Jesuit,  they  can  never  pardon,  and  which 
is  nothiniz:  but  the  twofold  influence  of  learning  and 
holiness. 

The  Sovereign  Pontifi*,  Gregory  XIII,  had  never  failed 
to  express  his  high  regard  for  the  Jesuits,  and  he  had  al- 
ways evinced  it  by  the  confidence  he  reposed  in  and  the 
affection  he  felt  for  them.  But  the  society  was  deprived 
of  all  this  support  and  succor  by  the  death  of  the  Holy 
Father,  Which  took  place  on  the  10th  of  April,  1585.  On 
the  24th  of  the  same  month,  he  was  succeeded  by  Felix 
Peretti,  Cardinal  of  Montalto,  who  assumed  the  name  of 
Sixtus    V.     On  the  tomb  of  Gregory  XIII  was  placed  a 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO    aQUAVIVA.    243 

figure  reprosenting  Father  Clavius  presenting  the  Gregor- 
ian calendar  to  the  Sovereign  Pontift",  who  had  left  it  as  an 
inheritance  to  the  whole  of  Christendom.  Thus  the  learned 
Jesuit  was  enabled  to  escape  the  glory  he  sought  to  shun. 
Soon  after,  he  was  solicited  by  the  citizens  of  Bamberg  to 
accept  the  mathematical  chair  in  their  University.  They 
offered,  even,  during  his  lifetime,  to  erect  to  his  honor  a 
statue  in  bronze,  if  he  would  comply  with  their  request. 
This  was  sufl&cient  to  alarm  the  humility  of  Father  Clavius, 
who  strongly  rejected  all  entreaties  on  this  subject,  and 
continued  at  his  observatory  in  the  Roman  College. 

The  success  of  the  Gref»;orian  calendar  continued  to  of- 
fend  the  Protestants.  The  Senate  of  Riga  had  adopted 
it,  and  declared  that  those  who  did  not  conform  to  it  should 
abide  by  the  consequences.  Against  this  decree  the  here- 
tics revolted,  and  on  the  24th  of  December,  1585,  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  the  conspirators  assembled  at  the  call  of 
a  Lutheran  minister,  who,  having  harangued  them  for  a 
long  time,  very  seriously  told  them,  in  conclusion  :  "  You 
now  see  that  it  is  not  the  Senate  that  is  guilty  ;  it  only  sub- 
mits to  the  yoke  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  power  is  unlimited. 
The  Jesuits  change  every  thing  in  the  universe — religion, 
the  sciences,  languages,  the  march  of  time,  and  even  the 
course  of  the  planets.  We  must  exterminate  them,  in 
order  to  put  an  end  to  this  universal  power.  Lotus,  then, 
on  to  the  Jesuits." 

"  On  to  the  Jesuits!  Down  with  the  Jesuits  !"  shouted 
the  excited  crowd. 

Not  one  among  those  rioters  had  perceived  the  ridicu- 
lousness of  the  language  that  had  just  been  addressed  to 
them ;  not  even  a  smile  had  been  elicited  by  this  great 
absurdity.  It  was  midnight — the  critical,  the  decisive  mo- 
ment. The  conspirators  proceeded  to  the  church  of  the 
Jesuits.  Midnight  mass  had  commenced.  The  celebrant 
was  dragged  from  the  altar  ;  the  church  was  pillaged  and 


244  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

sacrilegiously  profaned  ;  the  house  ransacked.  The  Gover- 
nor of  the  city,  finding  it  impossible  to  quell  the  tumult, 
thought  it  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  arms,  and  for  more 
than  a  month  the  city  was  in  a  state  of  siege,  Durins 
this  whole  time,  the  Jesuits  remained  perfectly  calm, 
patiently  awaiting  the  termination  of  the  tumult.  All  that 
the  Protestants  had  succeeded  in  achieving  was  a  disturb- 
ance in  the  city,  and  the  pillage  or  destruction  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  good  Fathers,  who  eventually,  however,  lost 
nothing,  for  the  Senate  and  all  the  Catholics  readily  came 
forward  to  make  good  the  damage  that  had  beea  done. 

IV. 

The  Jesuits  of  France,  in  common  with  the  other  re- 
ligious orders,  had  taken  part  with  the  League,  seeing  that 
their  only  end  was  to  maintain  the  Catholic  religion  in  the 
most  Christian  kingdom.  Sixtus  V,  moreover,  secured  to 
the  support  of  the  League  all  the  monastic  orders.  But 
Father  Aquaviva,  who  could  not  ignore  the  political  ten- 
dency of  the  body,  had  ordered  his  religious  to  decline 
taking  any  part  with  the  factions  that  divided  France.  He 
had  even  recalled  Father  Mathieu,  the  Provincial,  of  whose 
services  the  princes  had  made  use,  notwithstanding  his 
reiterated  warnings; 

Thus  was  proved  the  firm  determination  of  the  General 
to  maintain  the  spirit  of  the  society  within  the  limits  laid 
down  for  its  guidance  by  the  holy  founder.  The  Duke  of 
Guise  understood  it  in  this  light.  Nevertheless,  feeling  per- 
suaded that  Father  Aquaviva  would  not  give  him  a  direct 
refusal,  he  wrote  to  him,  inclosing  important  documents 
for  the  Pope  and  some  of  the  Cardinals,  which  he  begged  of 
him  to  deliver  personally.  But  Father  Aquaviva  could  not 
himself  do  that  which  he  had  forbidden  to  those  under  his 
control.    The  question  of  the  League  was  involved  in  those 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER   CtAUDlO   AQUAVIVA.    245 

papers.  He  desired  that  the  society  should  remain  aloof 
from  taking  any  part  in  it,  and  he  himself  set  the  exam- 
ple by  refusing  to  do  that  which  had  been  requested  of 
him. 

Sixtus  V,  displeased  at  this  species  of  opposition,  com- 
plained of  the  high  power  vested  in  the  General  by  the 
constitution  of  the  society,  and  resolved  to  revise  and 
modify  that  instrument.  The  numerous  alterations  which 
he  desired  to  make  would  have  totally  destroyed  the 
economy  of  the  Order,  and  essentially  altered  its  spirit. 
Indeed,  the  original  society  would  have  disappeared;  it 
would  have  become  a  new  order.  Father  Aquaviva  could 
not  consent  to  this.  He  expostulated,  he  protested,  he 
pointed  out  to  the  Pope  the  impossibility  of  reconciling 
the  intentions  of  the  holy  founder  with  laws  so  different 
from  those  which  he  had  given  for  the  guidance  of  the 
society,  and  he  finally  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  few  con- 
cessions. This,  however,  did  not  satisfy  him.  He  insisted 
in  not  yielding  on  any  point,  and  Sixtus  V  was  equally  de- 
termined to  grant  no  more.  The  contest  was  prolonged 
without  any  definite  result,  when  several  sovereigns,  hear- 
ing of  the  intentions  of  the  Pope,  wrote  to  entreat  His 
Holiness,  not  to  make  any  alteration  in  the  organization 
of  an  order  which  had  already  produced  such  great  men, 
and  rendered  to  the  Church  such  eminent  services.  Sixtus 
V  was  inexorable.  Claudio  Aquaviva  prayed,  and  relied 
upon  assistance  from  Almighty  Grod,  ever  contesting,  but 
with  so  much  modesty  in  his  firmness,  and  such  respect  in 
his  language,  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  Pope  to  take 
offense  at  this  humble  opposition. 

"I  consent  that  they  shall  retain  the  name  of  Jesuits," 
the  Pope  frequently  said,  "  among  themselves,  but  I  will 
never  consent  that  the  Order  shall  be  called  the  Society 
of  Jesus.     Society  of  Jesus !  "    exclaimed    his  Holiness. 


246  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

*'  What,  then,  are  these  Fathers,  whom  we  can  not  name 
without  bowing  our  heads,  or  removing  our  hat?  "* 

It  was  a  fixed  intention,  an  inflexible  determination, 
to  abolish  the  title  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  Sacred 
College,  feeling  that  the  time  for  carrying  into  execution 
this  idea  was  approaching,  made  fresh  efforts — entreated 
and  conjured  the  Holy  Father,  reminding  him  of  all  the 
services  rendered  by  the  society,  of  all  the  heroes,  learned 
men,  and  martyrs  that  it  had  already  given  to  the  Church — 
but  the  Pope  was  not  to  be  moved.  Nevertheless,  he  did 
not  wish  that  the  Catholic  Sovereigns,  all  of  whom  sup- 
ported and  defended  the  society,  and  who  had  begged  that 
its  laws  should  not  be  altered,  should  attribute  to  him  the 
initiative  in  abolishing  the  name.  Hence,  he  ordered  the 
General  of  the  society  so  to  word  the  decree,  that  it  should 
appear  that  the  Pope  had  accorded  the  suppression  upon 
the  request  of  Father  Claudio  Aquaviva. 

This  was  to  command  him  to  throw  the  blame  on  the 
venerated  memory  of  the  holy  founder  of  his  Order;  this 
was  compelling  him  to  ask  for  his  own  condemnation  and 
that  of  all  the  members  of  the  society,  who,  since  its 
foundation,  had  gloried  in  this  title.  It  was  imposing 
upon  him  the  humiliation  of  taking  upon  himself  alone 
the  responsibility  of  such  a  step,  and  sut)jecting  him  to  all 
the  odium  which  would  attach  to  its  author. 

It  was  a  severe  trial  for  Father  Aquaviva,  but  it  was 
not  beyond  the  greatness  of  his  soul.  Claudio  Aquaviva 
had  taken  a  vow  of  obedience   to  the  Sovereign   Pontiff, 


*  It  is  the  custom  of  those  who  glory  in  the  name  of  Christian,  on 
hearing  the  holy  name  of  Jesus,  to  pay  honor  to  it — the  men  by  re- 
moving their  h«*.s,  the  women  by  reverently  inclining  the  head. 
In  France,  since  the  Revolution,  this  custom  has  not  been  generally 
observed,  but  it  is  still  practised  in  a  few  of  the  southern  provinces 
where  the  people  seem  still  to  feel  that,  ^' at  the  name  of  Jesus,  every 
l(nee  shall  boxo,  in  heaven,  on  earth,  and  in  hell." 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER    CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     247 

and  obedience  is  tliaractcristie  of  the  Jesuit.  He  sub- 
mitted, drew  up  the  decree  in  accordance  with  instruc- 
tions given  him,  signed  it,  and  delivered  it  personally  to 
Sixtus  V.  The  Pope,  satisfied  with  this  triumph,  received 
the  document,  which  he  read  and  locked  it  up  in  his  bureau. 
This  was  on  the  18th  of  August,  1590. 

On  leaving  the  Quirinal,  the  Father- General  repaired 
to  the  Novitiate  of  St.  Andrew,  and  directed  the  novices 
to  commence  a  novena  on  the  following  day,  vpith  a  view 
of  begging  Almighty  God  to  protect  the  society  from  the 
misfortune  which  hovered  over  it.  On  the  27th  of  August, 
the  last  day  of  the  novena,  Sixtus  V,  who  for  some  time 
had  been  suffering  from  a  fatal  disease,  and  was  exhausted 
by  continued  labors  and  old  age,  expired  at  the  very  mo- 
ment that  the  bell  of  the  Novitiate  called  its  members  to 
the  recital  of  the  Litanies.  Thus  he  departed,  before 
having  signed  or  promulgated  the  decree  which  would 
have  abolished  the  title  of  the  society.  The  document 
was  found  in  the  very  place  where  the  deceased  Pontiff 
had  placed  it,  in  the  presence  of  Father  Aquaviva,  and 
precisely  as  he  had  received  it  from  the  hands  of  holy 
obedience. 

The  Romans  saw  in  the  death  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
at  this  critical  juncture,  a  direct  intervention  of  Provi- 
dence in  favor  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  This  event  made 
such  an  impression  on  them,  that  the  remembrance  of  it 
has  been  always  preserved.  Ever  since  that  memorable 
day,  whenever  the  Pope  is  dangerously  ill,  and  the  bells  for 
the  prayers  for  departing  souls  are  heard  in  a  church  of 
the  society,  the  people  are  sure  to  remark  that  "the  Holy 
Father  is  about  to  die,  for  there  is  the  bell  of  the  Jesuits, 
tolling  the  Litanies.'^ 

The  successor  of  Sixtus  V  survived  his  election  but 
thirteen  days,  and  had  no  time  to  show  the  Jesuits  either 
disfavor    or  support;    but    Cardinal   Sfondrati,   who   was 


J3 


248  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

elected  on  the  5tli  of  December,  1590,  under  the  name  of 
Gregory  XIV,  at  once  published  a  Bull,  confirming  the 
name  so  loved  and  cherished,  and  so  dear  to  the  heart  of 
each  member  of  the  "  Society  of  Jesus." 

On  the  21st  of  June,  in  the  following  year,  an  angel 
threw  off  the  coils  of  this  mortal  body,  and  winged  his 
flight  to  heaven.  Without  having  taken  an  active  part  in 
the  struggles  and  battles  of  the  society  on  earth,  he  went  to 
participate  in  that  eternal  glory  prepared  for  it  in  heaven. 
Aloysius  Gonzaga,  while  tending  the  sick  in  the  hospi- 
tals, was  seized  with  a  fever,  which  soon  carried  him  off, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three  years,  six  of  which  he  had 
spent  in  the  society.  He  had  edified  the  world  and  the 
cloister  by  the  practice  of  heroic  virtues  and  the  charm  of 
angelic  meekness.  The  learned  Bellarmine,  under  whose 
direction  he  was  trained  and  formed  for  the  society,  begged 
the  favor  of  being  interred  at  his  feet,  when  the  time 
should  arrive  for  him  to  join  his  departed  brothers. 

V. 

On  the  23d  of  December,  1588,  the  Duke  of  Guise  was 
assassinated  in  the  Chateau  of  Blois.  The  following  day 
his  brother,  the  Cardinal,  also  fell  by  the  stroke  of  a 
sword  in  the  hands  of  an  assassin.  Both  had  been  mur- 
dered by  the  order  of  King  Henry  III.  Immediately 
France  resounded,  from  one  end  to  the  other,  with  a  cry 
of  malediction  against  the  royal  murderer.  The  Uni- 
versities and  the  Parliament  agreed  that,  as  the  King 
had  caused  the  chiefs  of  the  League  to  be  put  to  death, 
he  also  deserved  to  die.  Seventy  of  the  doctors  of  Sor- 
bonne  declared  subjects  relieved  from  their  oath  of  alle- 
giance, and  invoked  on  the  head  of  the  monarch  all  the 
^ratl>  qi'  lieaveq  and  of  earth.  On  the  1st  of  August, 
J^c(jues  Glpmept,  a  Pominican,  assassinated-  Henry  III, 
and  this    rpgipide  foupd    qnjy  admirers  and    paneg3^rists 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.   249 

in  the  Parliainent,  the  Sorbonne,  and  the  Universities. 
On  the  6th  of  iVugust,  but  five  days  after  the  perpetra- 
tion of  the  murder,  the  Council  of  Sixteen  sent  to  the 
preachers  who  were  devoted  to  the  League  the  following 
recommendations,  which  they  were  to  develop  in  their 
sermons:  "First,  Justify  and  defend  the  act  of  the  Jaco- 
bin (Jacque  Clement),  on  the  ground  that  it  resembled 
that  of  Judith,  so  strongly  set  forth  in  Holy  Scripture. 
Secondly.  Inveigh  against  thos^  who  are  in  fjwor  of  the 
King  of  Navarre,  provided  he  consent  to  attend  mass, 
urging  the  impossibility  of  his  succeeding  to  the  kingdom, 
being  excommunicated  and  even  excluded  from  that  of 
Navarre.  Thirdly.  Exhort  the  authorities  to  proclaim 
that  all  those  who  would  support  the  King  of  Navarre  are 
tainted  with  heresy,  and  shall  be  prosecuted  upon  that 
charge." 

Notwithstanding  this,  Henry  of  Navarre  continued  to 
advance  at  the  head  of  his  army  until,  victory  crowning 
victory,  he  reached  the  very  gates  of  the  capital,  where 
the  Parisians,  even  to  the  priests  and  religious,  had  taken 
up  arms  to  repulse  him.  The  University  had  suspended 
its  studies,  and  directed  that  the  professors  and  students 
should  contribute  to  the  public  defense.  The  Jesuits  scru- 
pulously abstained  from  taking  any  part.  Their  classes 
were  continued  with  the  usual  punctuality  on  the  part  of 
both  professors  and  pupils.  This,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Leaguers,  was  a  crime.  The  society  was  charged  with  in- 
difference for  the  Catholic  cause,  and  of  showing  a  partial- 
ity for  the  King  of  Navarre,  heir  of  the  last  of  the  Valois, 
the  assassin  of  the  Princes  of  Guise.  For  the  time  being, 
it  was  imputing  to  the  Jesuits  an  unpardonable  crime. 

In  the  mean  time,  provisions  became  so  scarce  that  a 
famine  seemed  to  be  inevitable.  Processions  took  place 
for  the  purpose  of  appeasing  the  Divine  anger,  but  they 
were  not  participated  in  by  the  Jesuits,  which  was  construed 


250  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

into  a  fresh  grievance.  Almighty  God,  however,  appeared, 
as  it  were,  relentless,  and,  the  dearth  of  provisions  increas- 
ing, the  people  began  to  lose  faith  in  the  Sorbonne. 
Cardinal  Cajetani,  Legate  of  the  Holy  See,  was,  therefore, 
consulted.  He,  in  his  turn,  conferred  with  the  Jesuits, 
whom  he  begged  to  determine  whether  the  Parisians  sub- 
jected themselves  to  excommunication  by  acknowledging 
the  King  of  Navarre  as  their  sovereign.  Fathers  Bellar- 
mine  and  Tyrius,  to  whom  was  referred  the  solution  of 
this  difficulty,  decided  negatively.  The  University  and 
the  League,  disapproving  of  the  choice  of  those  casuists, 
took  no  notice  whatever  of  the  decision,  and  continued 
the  defense  of  Paris. 

During  the  prolonged  struggle  between  the  besiegers 
and  the  besieged,  Henry  IV  determined  to  return  to  the 
bosom  of  the  Church,  and  on  the  25th  of  July,  1593,  he 
abjured  Calvinism  in  the  Basilica  of  St.  Denis.  On  the 
27th  of  August,  Peter  Barriere,  a  soldier  of  the  League, 
attempted  his  assassination,  for  which  he  was  arrested, 
taken  to  Melun,  and  put  to  the  torture,  when  he  said  he 
had  been  advised  to  commit  the  crime  by  the  Theologians, 
whom  he  had  consulted.  Among  these  he  named  a  Car- 
melite and  a  Capuchin,  Aubry,  Doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  and 
others.  He  was  asked  to  give  the  name  of  his  confessor, 
and  he  declared  he  had  concealed  from  him  the  intention 
of  committing  this  crime.  His  name  was  Father  Varadel, 
a  Jesuit.     Peter  Barriere  was  put  to  death  on  the  wheel. 

On  the  17th  of  September  following,  the  Society  of 
Jesus  found  itself  under  the  necessity  of  making  a  sacri- 
fice, and  receiving  an  honor  which  it  had  so  often  feared 
and  so  frequently  rejected.  The  learned  Father  Tolet  was 
made  a  member  of  the  Sacred  Colleire.  To  all  his  en- 
treaties,  which  were  backed  by  those  of  Father  Aquaviva, 
to  be  excused  from  accepting  this  dignity,  the  Pope  sim- 
ply  answered :    "  On   this  point,  I  am  resolved.     Father 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.    251 

Tolet  must  not,  under  pain  of  mortal  sin,  refuse  to  accept 
the  dignity  of  the  Roman   Purple." 

Father  Posse vin  had  just  been  recalled  to  Rome  from 
Padua,  where  he  had  filled  the  Professor's  chair,  with 
brilliant  success,  since  the  year  1587.  During  his  sojourn 
in  that  city,  he  had  met  a  young  student  who  had  become 
much  attached  to  him,  and  had  begged  of  him  to  be  the  di- 
rector of  his  conscience,  which  he  entirely  gave  up  to  his 
guidance.  The  young  student  was  Francis  de  Sales,  the 
subsequent  illustrious  and  holy  Bishop  of  Geneva.  It  is 
well  known  that  he  ever  evinced  for  the  Society  of  Jesus 
a  filial  afi"ection,  and  spoke  of  it  in  terms  of  admiration  and 
veneration  to  his  cherished  daughters  of  the  Visitation. 
It  appears  astonishing  that  so  many  Christians,  professing 
the  greatest  admiration  for  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  entertain 
quite  a  difi"erent  feeling  toward  the  society  which  he  loved, 
and  of  which  he  possessed  the  full  spirit.  Such,  how- 
ever is  the  inconsistency  of  worldly-mindedness. 

Clement  VIII  had  not  yet  taken  off  the  ban  of  excom- 
munication from  Henry  IV,  whose  abjuration  of  Calvinism 
appeared  to  him  to  be  influenced  by  ambition  for  the 
crown  of  France.  He  heard  that  this  prince  was  about 
sending  an  ambassador  to  the  Roman  court,  and  that  the 
Duke  of  Nevers  was  to  seek  for  that  absolution  without 
which  Henry  could  not  be  acknowledged  by  his  new  sub- 
jects. The  Pope  sent  for  Father  Possevin,  whom  he  con- 
sulted as  to  whether  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  could  hold  any 
direct  communication  with  the  ambassador  of  an  excom- 
municated sovereign.  The  Jesuit  replied  that,  as  the 
King  of  Navarre  had  renounced  Calvinism,  no  one  could, 
in  conscience,  affirm  that  his  recantation  was  insincere, 
and  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  Pope  might  not  only  recog- 
nize him  and  receive  his  ambassador,  but  could  not  with- 
hold the  absolution  which  he  came  to  ask.  To  act 
otherwise,  he  contended,  would  be  to  prolong,  indefinitely, 
23* 


252  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  war  between  the  parties.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
however,  persisted  in  his  refusal,  and  ordered  Father  Fos- 
sevin  to  meet  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  and  inform  him,  in  the 
mildest  terms  possible,  that  his  entrance  into  Rome  was 
prohibited.  The  Father  immediately  took  his  departure, 
and  so  softened  the  refusal  that  the  Duke  did  not  under- 
stand that  he  had  been  interdicted  from  entering  the  Pon- 
tifical city,  which  he  reached  on  the  19th  of  November, 
1594.  Clement  VIII,  on  hearing  this,  expressed  so  much 
displeasure  that  Father  Possevin  was  under  the  necessity 
of  quitting  Rome,  secretly,  during  the  night.  He  retired 
to  Ferrara,  where  he  died  in  1611. 

The  French  minister  at  Venice,  Philip  Canage,  subse- 
quently wrote  to  Alincourt,  ambassador  of  Henry  IV : 
"  Father  Possevin,  besides  his  rare  piety  and  erudition, 
has  used  his  best  endeavors  for  the  restoration  of  His 
Majesty  to  grace,  and  with  so  much  earnestness  and  af- 
fection, that  France  owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude." 
Father  Possevin  had  quitted  Rome  leaving  the  Pope  to 
his  own  reflections,  and  His  Holiness,  becoming  troubled 
in  conscience,  summoned  Cardinal  Tolet,  whom  he  well 
knew  had  continued,  heart  and  soul,  a  Jesuit.  He  it  was 
who  at  last  succeeded  in  prevailing  upon  the  Pope  to  re- 
move the  ban  of  excommunication,  and  to  absolve  the 
King.^ 

The  Parliament  and  the  University  did  not  wait  for  the 
result  of  the  negotiations  of  the  King  with  the  court  of 
Rome  to  give  in  their  adherence  to  the  crown.  Jacques 
d'Amboise,  the  King's  physician,  was  selected  as  the  rep- 
resentative of  the   University,  and   when,   on    the  22d  of 


*  Cardinal  Ossat  thus  wrote  to  Villeroi  :  "  I  neither  can  nor  ought 
to  remain  silent  on  the  good  services  Cardinal  Tolet  has  rendered  in 
his  interviews  with  the  Po{>e,  as  well  as  elsewhere.  So  much,  in- 
deed, has  he  accomplished,  that  it  may  in  truth  be  said  that  His 
Eminence  has  done  more  than  all  the  others  put  together." 


GENERALSTTTT   OF  FATTIER  CLAUDTO   AQTTAVIVA.     253 

April,  159-4,  the  dootnrs  went  to  present  tlicmsolves  before 
the  Kiiiii',  d'Aiiiboise  beuired  the  pardon  of  those  who 
had  so  often  sought  the  life  of  the  King.  Full  of  ze.il, 
after  this  very  submissive  course,  the  members  of  the 
University  urucd  the  League  and  the  religious  orders  to 
subscribe  to  the  oath  which  they  had  prepared.  To  this 
the  Jesuits  demurred,  declaring  that  they  would  not  con- 
sent to  acknowledge  the  King  until  they  had  received  the 
permission  of  the  Holy  See  to  do  so  ;  but  they  promised 
not  to  oppose  him.  The  University  was  jubilant  at  this 
refusal,  which  it  resolved  at  once  to  make  use  of  in  the 
service  of  the  common  enemy  of  all  good.  Although  the 
other  orders  came  to  a  similar  decision,  and  returned 
about  the  same  answer,  still,  as  it  was  the  Jesuits  alone 
that  gave  umbrage  to  the  University,  by  their  devotedness 
to  the  education  of  the  young,  the  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity troubled  themselves  no  more  about  the  Capuchins, 
or  Carthusians,  or  any  other  order,  and  took  up  only  the 
refusal  of  the  Jesuits. 

On  the  20th  of  May,  they  presented  a  petition  to  Par- 
liament, in  which  they  recapitulated  all  their  grievances 
against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  concluded  thus  :  "  May 
it  please  the  Court  to  direct  that  this  sect  may  be  exterm- 
inated, not  only  from  the  said  University,  but  also  from 
the  kingdom  of  France." 

In  the  month  of  July,  a  Calvinist,  named  Bungars,  thus 
wrote  from  Paris  :  "  We  are  engaged  here  in  expelling 
the  Jesuits.  The  University,  the  curates,  and  the  entire 
city,  have  united  against  these  pests  of  society."  Such, 
henceforth,  ^vas  the  hostile  combination  against  the 
Order  of  Jesus.  The  past  sufficiently  explains  the 
present. 

On  the  27th  of  December,  of  the  same  year,  one  John 
Chastel  attempted  to  assassinate  Henry  IV,  but  succeeded 
only  in  wounding  him  slightly  in  the  lip.      When  put  to 


254  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  torture,  Chastel  admitted  that  he  was  educated  at  the 
University,  studied  philosophy  at  the  college  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  returned  to  the  University  to  read  law. 
The  adversaries  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  could  only  un- 
derstand one  thins; :  that  the  accused  had  attended  Father 
Gueret's  course  of  philosophy  ;  hence,  it  was  the  society 
who  had  placed  the  poniard  in  the  hands  of  Chastel. 
The  matter  appeared  so  clear  to  these  crafty  men,  that 
they  hesitated  not  in  demanding  that  the  whole  body  of 
Jesuits  should  be  arrested.  Until  the  last  moment  of 
his  life,  Chastel  protested  against  this  accusation,  and 
asserted  that  no  Jesuit  had  ever  advised  him  to  commit 
the  crime  of  which  he  had  been  guilty  ;  but  his  protesta- 
tions were  in  vain.  His  attendance  at  the  classes  of  the 
Jesuits  was  of  much  shorter  duration  than  at  the  Uni- 
versity, where  he  was  still  residing  when  he  committed 
the  deed.  But,  no  matter  ;  it  was  the  Jesuits  who  had 
made  him  an  assassin.  The  University  had  instigated  all 
its  students  to  take  up  arms  against  Henry  IV,  telling 
them  that  any  Frenchman  who  should  be  found  acknowl- 
edging his  allegiance  to  that  prince  should  be  excommu- 
nicated. This  doctrine,  on  the  other  hand,  had  not  been 
inculcated  by  the  Jesuits,  who,  during  the  siege  of  Paris, 
had  continued  their  studies  as  usual,  and  had  decided 
that  the  Parisians  incurred  no  penalty  by  acknowledging 
Henry  of  Bourbon  as  King  of  France.  Yet  it  was  the 
Jesuits  who  had  counselled  Chastel  to  assassinate  Henry 
IV.  This  was  certainly  far  from  being  a  logical  conclu- 
sion ;  but  the  adversaries  of  the  society  have  never  been 
very  scrupulous  on  such  points.  Hurault  Chiverny,  who 
was,  at  the  time.  Chancellor  of  France,  and  ought  to  have 
been  well-informed  on  this   matter,  thus  speaks  of  it  in 

his  memoirs  : 

« 

''  Owing  to  the  fact  that  John  Chastel  had  studied  a  few  years 
at  the  college  of  the  Jesuits,  p.ud  that  the  leaders  of  the  Parlia- 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   CLAUDIO   AQUAVIVA.    255 

nient  had  long  felt  ill-will  toward  them,  only  awaiting  a  pretext 
for  their  ruin,  that  body  commissioned  some  of  its  own  members, 
who  were  avowed  enemies  of  the  Jesuits,  to  search  the  college  at 
Clermont,  where  they,  indeed,  did  find  certain  manuscripts  against 
the  dignity  of  kings,  and  some  writings  against  the  deceased 
monarch,  Henry  III,  which,  probably,  and  as  some  have  supposed, 
were  placed  there  intentionally. 

"  The  Parliament  had  the  Jesuits  arrested  and  taken  to  the 
conciergerie,  caused  the  Fathers  of  the  college  of  Clermont  to 
be  seized,  and,  in  addition  to  the  arrest  of  Chastel,  ordered  that 
all  the  Jesuits  should  leave  Paris  within  three  days,  and  the 
kingdom  in  fifteen  days,  threatening  that,  if  found  after  that 
time  within  the  realm,  they  should  be  hanged." 

It  was  not  enough  to  have  pronounced  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  Jesuits,  and  decreed  their  expulsion,  but  it 
was  necessary,  also,  to  impress  more  forcibly  the  public 
mind  by  the  execution  of  some  members  of  the  society, 
and  mark,  with  their  blood,  the  page  of  history  which 
was  destined  to  preserve  the  recollection  of  the  regicide 
Chastel.  It  was  necessary  to  leave  to  posterity  a  testi- 
mony which  might  be  referred  to,  when  occasion  required 
it,  to  bear  witness  of  their  complicity  in  his  crime. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1595,  Fathers  Gueret  and 
Guignard  were  cited  to  appear  before  the  Parliament. 
The  latter,  not  having  made  any  revelation  during  the 
tortures  to  which  he  had  been  subjected,  "  the  Court  or- 
dered," says  I'Estoile,  in  his  Journal  de  Henri  IV,  "  that 
the  Jesuit  should  be  hanged  on  the  Place  de  Greve,^ 
and  that  his  body  should  be  burned  to  ashes."  The 
same  author  is  of  opinion  that  Father  Guignard  was  a 
victim  to  the  hatred  of  the  enemies  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  and  gives  an  affecting  account  of  the  holy  death  of 
this  martyr. 

♦  Place  de  Greve — a  name  given  to  the  place  of  public  execution 
in  front  of  the  Town-hall  of  Paris. — Th. 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

Father  Gueret  and  six  others  were  submitted  to  the 
most  excruciating  tortures,  which  they  endured  with  pa- 
tience and  resio;nation  until  the  day  that  the  doors  of  their 
dungeons  were  opened,  in  order  to  expel  them  from  the 
capital.  Already  their  brothers  were  in  exile.  Lorraine 
oflfered  them  a  hospitable  reception,  while  the  University, 
the  Parliament,  and  the  Protestants  of  Paris  were  divid- 
ing their  spoils  among  themselves.  "  They  were  banished 
from  Paris,"  says  the  Chancellor  Chiverny,  in  his  memoirs, 
"  not  without  causing  a  feeling  of  astonishment  in  many 
and  regret  in  several.  The  gentlemen  of  the  Parliament 
confiscated  the  property  of  the  Jesuits,  and,  after  having 
seized  upon  and  disposed  of  all,  they  erected  a  beautiful 
pyramid  in  stone  out  of  its  proceeds,  of  which  the  afore- 
said grandees  of  the  Parliament  made,  free  use  during 
the  absence  of  the  Jesuits  from  Paris."  On  either  side 
of  the  pyramid  were  inscriptions  written  by  the  Protestant 
Joseph  Scaliger,  commemorating  the  crime  of  Chastel, 
and  attesting,  in  the  name  of  the  Parliament,  the  com- 
plicity of  the  Jesuits  therein. 

It  was  a  court  of  justice  which  thus  condemned  to  the 
maledictions  of  posterity  an  order  of  holy  religious  whose 
every  moment  was  consecrated  to  the  salvation  of  immor- 
tal souls !  The  decree  declared  that  their  property 
should  be  confiscated  and  appropriated  to  pious  works. 
The  Parliament  and  the  University  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  most  pious  and  meritorious  work  would  be 
to  pension  the  heretics,,whose  support  had  been  so  eflScient 
to  them  in  this  unhappy  afl'air.  In  order  that  the  un- 
derstanding existing  between  the  Parliament,  the  Uni- 
versity, and  Calvinism  should  not  be  questioned  in  the 
general  plunder  in  which  each  took  care  of  himself,  two 
Protestant  ministers,  Baugrand  and  Gosselin,  a  member 
of  the  Universit}'^,  Passerat,  and  some  other  enemies  of 
the  society,  established  themselves  at  the  college  of  Cler- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    OLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     257 

mont,  where  the  learned  Passerat  died  a  few  years  after- 
ward. 

VI. 

The  persecution  of  tlie  Catholics  in  England  was 
vigorously  continued.  Father  Thomas  Cottam  had  died 
on  the  scaffold,  after  having  undergone  the  torture  called 
"  The  Scavenger  s  Daughter.''  "  It  was,"  says  Cr6tineau 
Joly,  in  his  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  "  a  torture 
to  which  those  who  applied  it  gave  the  name  of  its  in- 
ventor. It  consisted  of  two  semicircles  of  iron,  joined 
together  at  one  end;  the  other  end  was  turned  in  a  con- 
trary direction,  and,  by  means  of  a  link,  the  two  formed 
a  hoop  which  could  be  contracted  at  pleasure.  The  vic- 
tim was  placed  on  his  knees  on  the  point  where  the  two 
semicircles  were  joined ;  the  executioner  pressed  down 
the  head  and  chest,  and  applied  all  the  force  of  his  body 
upon  the  unfortunate  sufferer,  until  he  was  able  to  join 
together  the  two  semicircles  by  the  ends  that  were  turned 
outward.  The  victim  was  thus  transformed  into  a  sort  of 
ball,  in  which  the  human  being  could  be  discovered  only 
by  the  blood  which  gushed  from  his  nostrils,  hands,  and 
feet." 

This  horrible  torture,  intended  for  the  most  infamous 
culprits,  a  Queen,  a  woman,  caused  to  be  inflicted  upon 
the  apostles  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ!  English 
historians  do  all  they  can  to  hold  up  the  memory  of 
Queen  Mary  to  the  execration  of  posterity,  because  that 
princess  attempted  to  reestablish  Catholicity  in  England 
by  force,  while  they  have  but  eulogiums  for  Elizabeth, 
who  persecuted  the  Catholics  with  a  cruelty  which  bears 
comparison  only  with  the  first  persecutions  of  the  Church. 
What  blind  infatuation  and  gross  inconsistency! 

Father  Cottam  suffered  the  cruel  torments  of  the  hor- 
rible machine  with  a  patience  and  submission  truly  an- 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

gelic ;  but  he  never  once  avowed  the  slightest  participa- 
tion in  any  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the  Queen. 
This  alone  was  proof  enough  of  his  culpability,  and  he 
was,  therefore,  put  to  death,  as  were  also  three  secular 
priests. 

Such  executions  were  frequent,  for  the  number  of  the 
apostles  appeared  to  augment  in  proportion  to  the  cruelty 
inflicted.  The  crown  of  martyrdom  excited  their  ardor. 
No  sooner  was  one  hero  borne  away  by  angels  to  the 
realms  of  bliss,  than  his  place  was  supplied  by  another. 
These  repeated  persecutions  and  executions  were  more 
than  could  be  calmly  endured  by  Elizabeth,  who  at  one 
time  trembled  for  her  reputation  in  Europe,  and  at  an- 
other for  her  future  fame.  She  felt  that  the  bloody  pages 
of  the  history  of  her  reign  needed  justification  in  the 
eyes  of  posterity;  hence  she  ordered  her  minister,  Cecil, 
to  write  the  work  entitled  "  British  Rights."  The  un- 
dertaking was  not  unattended  with  difficulties,  and  Cecil 
called  in  the  assistance  of  Camden.  In  this  book,  which 
was  published  in  Latin  and  English,  the  authors  assert- 
ed, without,  however,  adducing  any  proof,  that  the  Papist 
priests  and  Jesuits  who  had  been  tortured  and  put  to 
death  were  guilty  of  high  treason.  Camden,  in  his  "An- 
nals of  the  Keign  of  Elizabeth,"  attempts  a  justification  of 
that  princess,  but  makes  admissions  most  fatal  to  the 
cause  he  endeavored  to  defend.  "  It  is  true,"  says  he, 
"  that  recourse  was  had  to  fraud  to  discover  the  secrets 
of  hearts.  Letters  were  fabricated,  purporting  to  come 
clandestinely  from  the  Queen  of  Scotland  and  from  the 
banished  Catholics.  These  were  introduced  into  the 
houses  of  the  Papists,  in  order  that  they  might  there  be 
found  and  used  against  them.  Numerous  spies  were  to 
be  found  in  every  direction,  for  the  purpose  of  reporting 
whatever  might  be  said  or  done,  and  no  matter  who  was 
the   informer,  or    how    unimportant    the   iutelli<jence,  he 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     259 

was  admitted  as  a  witness.  Numerous  arrests  were  also 
made  on  mere  suspicion." 

The  Jesuit  mission  in  Scotland  was  most  successful,  and 
productive  of  immense  good.  Elizabeth  called  upon  King 
James  to  expel  all  the  Catholic  priests,  and  especially  the 
members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  James  trembled  at  the 
order  of  the  cruel  Queen ;  but,  while  condemning  his  own 
weakness,  he  sent  away  the  Fathers.  P]lizabeth,  at  length, 
wishing  to  appear  tired  of  these  continued  sanguinary 
excesses,  decreed  that  such  priests  and  Jesuits  as  would 
subscribe  to  the  oath  of  obedience  to  the  laws  and  statutes 
of  the  Queen  in  religious  matters,  both  present  and  fu- 
ture, mi<i;ht  remain  in  England  without  incurrino;  the 
royal  displeasure.  The  Jesuits  comprehended  the  snare. 
They  could  not,  in  conscience,  subscribe  to  this  oath,  and 
were  thus  compelled  to  remain  more  carefully  secreted 
than  ever.  Such  of  them  as  were  in  prison  were  put 
on  board  ships,  and  landed  on  the  shores  of  neighboring 
states. 

But  soon  a  voice  was  heard  from  Rome,  which  caused 
England  to  quail.  Heresy,  unable  to  defeat  the  Society 
of  Jesus  in  theological  discussions,  had  challenged  them 
on  the  field  of  martyrdom.  There  again  heresy  was 
compelled  to  admit  its  defeat;  for  the  apostolical  heroes 
succeeded  each  other  with  enthusiasm.  *  If  one  Jesuit 
fell,  immediately  another  took  his  place,  many  more  fol- 
lowed, and  conversions  became  very  numerous.  Anglic- 
anism, however,  continued  its  persecutions,  in  spite  of 
its  repeated  failures,  and,  putting  forth,  in  every  part  of 
Europe,  its  doctrines  of  "  British  Rights,"  the  Society 
was  compelled,  in  its  turn,  to  attack,  which  it  did,  in  a 
formidable  manner,  by  the  pen  of  one  of  the  most  learned 
and  brilliant  scholars  of  his  day.  Father  Bellarmine, 
whom  Cardinals  Sourdis,  Ascoli,  and  Ilbaldini  had  sur- 
named  the  firmest  support  of  religion,  the  scourge  of  the 
24 


260  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

heretics,  the  bulwark  of  the  Church,  published  his  cele- 
brated '■'■Theological  Conftrencesy 

At  once,  all  the  Anglican  divines  set  to  work,  and,  while 
seeking  to  refute,  are  constrained  to  admire  him.  Whit- 
taker,  in  dedicating  to  Sir  K,  Cecil  his  -Refutation  of  the 
Conferences"  of  the  illustrious  Jesuit,  says: 

"  I  regard  Bellarmine  as  a  man  of  profound  learning,  great 
genius,  subtle  judgment,  and  great  reading,  who  treats  his  sub- 
jects more  plainly  and  frankly  than  Papists  are  in  the  habit  of 
doing,  urging  his  argument  with  unparalleled  vigor,  while  he 
never  departs  from  his  subject.  His  writings  have  shown  us  more 
clearly  what  is,  as  it  were,  the  very  marrow  of  Popery,  which  we 
did  not  believe  existed  more  deeply  rooted  in  the  heart  of  the  Pope 
himself  than  in  that  of  the  Jesuits." 

The  Queen  could  not  help  feeling  that  the  Anglican 
theologians,  fiir  from  defeating  their  formidable  opponent, 
had  been  compelled  to  give  way  under  the  force  of  his  ar- 
guments; but,  not  wishing  that  Anglicanism  should  admit 
its  discomfiture,  she,  by  the  advice  of  David  Parry,  founded 
a  college  at  Oxford,  with  the  special  view  of  educating 
youths  to  sustain  arguments  against  Bellarmine,  and,  by 
royal  command,  the  college  was  called  "  The  Anti-Bellar- 
minian  Academy."  This  was  admitting  before  the  world 
that  all  the  learned  Anglicans  were  found  unable  to  refute 
the  arguments  that  had  been  adduced.  It  was  a  triumph 
for  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  a  new  title  of  glory  for  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 

While  w^aiting  for  the  college  of  Oxford  to  provide 
champions  capable  of  contesting  with  the  learned  Jesuits, 
Elizabeth  put  forth  a  new  edict  of  persecution,  in  which 
she  had  the  temerity  to  say,  "  I  know  positively  that  the 
colleges  of  the  Jesuits  are  the  nests  and  hiding-places  in 
which  the  rebels  take  refuge."  This  decree,  which  was 
dated  October  18,   1591,   caused  the  scaffolds  to  be  once 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     261 

more  erected,  and  the  number  of  the  niart3'rs  of  the  ?^o- 
ciety  of  Jesus  to  be  increased.  Nor  did  the  death  of 
Elizabeth,  which  took  place  on  the  3d  of  August,  1603, 
put  a  stop  to  the  effects  of  this  unjust  proclamation. 

VII. 

Each  day  saw  the  faith  spread  more  and  more  in  the 
vast  empire  of  Japan,  under  the  zealous  ministry  of  the 
Jesuits.  Occasionally,  the  Bonzes  succeeded  in  causing 
a  popular  persecution  against  the  Christians,  first  in  one 
state  and  then  in  another.  But  the  Jesuits  were  not  dis- 
couraged by  these  frequent  attacks  of  the  enemy.  They 
would  cross  a  river,  or  traverse  a  mountain,  or  even,  at 
times,  pass  into  a  neighboring  state,  in  order  to  be  near 
their  neophytes.  At  other  times  they  would,  as  circum- 
stances arose,  brave  the  persecution,  and  thus  were  not 
long  in  reclaiming  from  idolatry  those  who  had  been 
momentarily  taken  from  them. 

In  1584,  Father  Valignani,  at  the  time  Provincial  of 
Japan,  proposed  to  some  Christian  princes  to  send  am- 
bassadors to  lay  at  the  feet  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  the 
homage  of  their  submission  and  respect.  The  Kings  of 
Bungo,  Arima,  and  Omura  yielded  to  the  solicitations 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  sent,  as  ambassadors,  two  of  the  royal 
princes,  Mancio  Ito  and  Michael  Singiva.  Two  other 
envoys  of  high  rank,  Martin  Fara  and  Julian  Nacama, 
were  associated  with  them,  and  a  Japanese  Jesuit,  who 
had  taken  the  name  of  George  Loyola.  Father  Valig- 
nani. whom  the  cause  of  religion  and  the  interests  of 
the  society  called  to  Rome,  started  with  the  above  em- 
bassies on  the  20th  of  February,  1582,  and  on  the  20th 
of  March,  1585,  reached  the  Eternal  City,  having  passed 
through  Spain,  where  they  were  introduced  to  Philip  II. 
In  1587,  the  King  of  Omura  and  the  aged  Francis  Xavier 
Civandono,  King  of  Bungo,  both  fervent  Christians  and 


262       HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

warm  supporters  of  religion  in  their  states,  passed  into  a 
better  world,  leaving  behind  them  the  example  of  emi- 
nent virtues,  which  were  crowned  by  the  most  edif^'ing 
death.  But,  while  the  missionaries  had  to  deplore  these 
two  great  losses,  they  were  consoled  by  the  protection 
which  the  Emperor  afforded  the  Christians.  The  converts 
had  increased  so  rapidly  during  these  three  years,  thnt 
they  numbered  no  fewer  than  two  hundred  thousand. 
Among  them  were  several  kings,  princes,  and  others  of 
high  rank,  including  three  of  the  Emperor's  ministers. 

The  Bonze  Jacuin,  who  was  commissioned  to  seek  for 
the  most  handsome  women  of  the  empire  fur  presentation 
to  the  Emperor,  in  order  that  he  might  make  choice 
among  them,  desired  to  conduct,  with  the  rest,  two  young 
Christians  of  Arima,  with  whose  beauty  he  had  been 
struck ;  but  they  had  declined  that  which  the  Pagans 
looked  upon  as  the  greatest  honor,  and  Jacuin  denounced 
them  to  Taicosama,  saying  :  "  This  refusal  of  the  women 
of  Arima  is  an  insult  to  you.  Prince — to  you  who  pro- 
tect the  Christian  law.  It  is  precisely  in  obedience  to  that 
law  that  they  thus  offend  you.  Let  affairs  be  allowed  to 
proceed  thus,  and,  when  the  Bonzes  of  Europe  shall  have 
usurped  all  the  power  they  are  ambitious  to  possess,  you 
will  find  that  your  most  legitimate  desires  will  be  treated 
with  contempt.  Look  at  the  law  which  commands  us  to 
respect  the  ox.  Europeans  violate  it  continually  by  eat- 
ing its  sacred  flesh.  Ucondono,  who  is  protected  by  the 
Portuguese  vessels  and  by  the  Christian  Bonzes,  will  soon 
replace  you,  and  you  will  perish  because  you  have  so 
willed  it." 

The  Emperor,  not  a  little  alarmed,  commanded  his  min- 
ister, Justo  Ucondono,  to  abjure  Christianity,  to  which 
the  minister  replied  that  he  preferred  exile,  and  even 
death  itself,  to  apostasy.  He  was  condemned  to  exile, 
his   possessions   were  confiscated,  and   he    and   his   aged 


GKNERAT.SIIIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     263 

father,  his  wife  and  children,  reduced  to  poverty.  Friends 
iirued  liim,  with  tears,  to  conceal,  for  a  time,  his  true  sen- 
timents, in  order  that  the  anger  of  the  Kuiperor  nii^ht 
subside;  but  he  was  not  to  be  moved.  His  family,  like 
himself,  were  also  Christians,  and  they  rejoiced  with  him 
that  they  had  the  opportunity  of  offering  to  Almighty 
God  a  proof  of  their  lively  faith. 

Taicosama  gave  the  Jesuits  but  twenty  days  to  vacate 
the  Empire  of  Japan,  and  ordered  that  any  of  them  who 
might  be  found  after  that  time  should  meet  the  doom  of 
traitors.  Father  Coelho  made  reply  that,  as  there  was  no 
vessel  sailing,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  extent  of  terri- 
tory over  which  the  missionaries  were  spread,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  comply  with  the  order  by  the  time  named. 
Taicosama  listened  to  this  reasoning,  and  ordered  all  the 
Jesuits  to  assemble  at  Firando,  there  to  await  an  oppor- 
tunity to  embark.  At  the  same  time,  he  published  an 
edict  prohibiting  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and 
announcing  that  he  also  banished  the  European  Bon- 
zes^ whose  religion  was  that  of  the  evil  one,  because  they 
used  oxen  for  their  food  and  destroyed  the  idols.  A  few 
days  afterward,  another  edict  was  promulgated,  which  con- 
demned to  exile  or  death  every  Japanese  Christian  who 
refused  to  abjure  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Jesuits,  compelled  to  obey,  assembled  at  Firando,  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen.  Father  Oraan- 
tini  and  two  others  remained  concealed,  in  order  to  sustain 
the  courage  and  faith  of  their  Christians.  The  Portu- 
guese vessel,  by  which  the  missionaries  were  ordered  to  de- 
part, cast  anchor  in  Firando  Roads  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1588;  but  the  apostles  of  Japan  could  not,  at  the  voice 
of  one  man,  so  easily  give  up  a  mission  so  promising  and 
so  flourishing.  It  had  not  been  yet  satisfactorily  proved 
to  them  that  the  whim  of  an  idolatrous  sovereign  was  the 

manifestation  of  the  will  of  God.     They  confided  to  the 
24* 


264  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

captain  the  resolution  tlicy  had  come  to,  whereupon  he 
weighed  anchor  and  put  out  to  sea. 

Taicosama,  enraged  at  seeing  his  orders  thus  treated 
with  contempt,  caused  seventy  churches  to  be  burned,  or 
otherwise  destroyed,  and  would  not  have  left  one  standino^ 
had  he  not  feared  a  revolt  of  the  Christians,  whose  num- 
bers caused  him  just  alarm.  The  King  of  Bungo,  appre- 
hending the  anger  of  the  Emperor,  sent  away  five  Jesuits, 
to  whom  he  had  afforded  an  asylum  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  persecution  and  apostatised.  Joscimond  went 
further.  In  order  to  prove  his  sincerity  to  the  Emperor, 
he  had  two  Christians  put  to  death,  Joachim  Namura  and 
Joram  Nacama,  the  first  Japanese  martyrs. 

This  first  Japanese  Christian  blood,  shed  for  the  faith, 
brought  forth  thousands  of  Christians  in  the  kingdom  of 
Arima  and  Amacuza.  Even  the  Kings  asked  for  and  solicited 
to  be  baptized,  declaring  that  until  death  they  would  be 
the  defenders  of  the  relioion  which  the  fjreat  Xavier  first 
revealed  to  the  Empire  of  Japan.  In  the  midst  of  these 
troubles  and  consolations,  the  Jesuits  of  the  Japanese 
mission  lost  their  Provincial.  Father  Coelho  was  called  to 
the  reward  of  his  laborious  apostleship,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Father  Gomez. 

In  the  mean  time.  Father  Alexander  Valignani,  return- 
ing from  Rome  with  the  Japanese  ambassadors,  touched 
at  Goa,  where  he  heard  of  the  events  that  had  transpired 
in  Japan  during  his  absence.  He  was  aware  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  law  by  wliich,  if  any  person  condemned  to  death 
could  procure  admittance  to  the  Emperor's  presence,  he 
was,  by  that  fact,  pardoned,  and  the  pardon  extended  to 
his  family  and  friends.  Father  Valignani  requested  Don 
Edouardo  de  Menesez,  Viceroy  of  the  Indies,  to  appoint 
him  as  ambassador  to  the  Emperor  of  Japan,  and  he  forth- 
with   proceeded   to   Meaco.      Taicosama,  flattered    by    the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATTIER   CLAUDIO  AQUA  VIVA.     265 

honor  thus  paid  him  by  the  sovorei<z:ns  of  Spain,  Portu- 
gal, and  the  Indies,  and,  above  all,  enchanted  to  find  that 
the  tTapanese  ambassadors  had  spoken  in  Kurope  of  his 
power  and  grandeur,  received  Father  Valignani  on  con- 
dition that  he  would  not  speak  to  him  upon  religion.  On 
the  3d  of  March,  1591,  the  Jesuit  was  carried  to  the  im- 
perial palace  in  a  costly  litter.  The  presents  intended 
for  the  Emperor  preceded  the  ambassador,  and  the  four 
princes  and  Japanese  nobles  of  his  suite  followed,  bearing 
splendid  vestments,  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  had  given 
them.     The  cortege  was  closed  by  two  Jesuits. 

Father  Valignani  presented  to  the  Emperor  the  letters 
of  the  Viceroy,  and  Taicosama,  enchanted  with  the  en- 
comiums passed  upon  him  by  the  Jesuits,  consented  to 
allow  them  to  remain  in  his  empire.  "  But,"  added  he, 
"there  must  be  no  preaching,  no  public  worship ;  for  there 
are  around  me  bitter  enemies  of  the  Christian  religion." 
These  inveterate  enemies  were  the  Bonzes.  The  mission- 
aries were  henceforth  compelled  to  exercise  their  apostle- 
ship  secretly,  in  order  to  avoid  arousing  suspicion,  which 
could  end  only  in  persecution. 

In  the  month  of  February,  1592,  Father  Valignani  left 
Japan,  leaving  Father  Gomez  as  Provincial.  Not  long 
afterward,  war  was  declared  against  Corea,  and  the  general 
selected  by  the  Emperor  to  take  command  of  his  troops 
was  a  Christian,  who  attached  to  his  command  two 
Jesuit  Fathers,  and  who  had  thus  the  privilege  of  first 
planting  the  seeds  of  the  Gospel  in  that  country. 

VIII. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Cardinal  Tolet,  which 
*ook  olace  on  the  14th  of  September,  1596,  Cardinal  Ossat, 
Bishop  of  Rennes,  and  ambassador  of  France  to  the  Holy 
See,  thus  wrote  to  the  minister  Villeroi: 


266  HISTORY  OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"His  Eminence,  Cardinal  Tolet,  died  on  Saturday,  the  14th  in- 
stant, by  which  event  the  Church  has  lost  one  of  its  brightest 
ornaments,  the  Pope  his  chief  counsellor,  and  the  King  and  France 
an  invaluable  friend." 

Henry  IV,  receiving  this  intelligence  in  Normandy, 
immediately  sent  an  autograpli  letter  of  condolence  to  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  and  ordered  a  grand  funeral  service,  for 
the  repose  of  the  soul  of  the  Jesuit,  to  be  performed  in  the 
cathedral  of  Rouen,  on  the  17th  of  October,  at  which  he 
personally  attended,  accompanied  by  his  suite.  He  also 
commanded  the  parliamentary  bodies  of  the  kingdom  to 
render  a  like  homage  to  the  memory  of  the  great  man  whom 
God  had  just  removed  from  the  world.  The  Society  of 
Jesus  had  just  lost  a  Cardinal,  but  his  successor  was  al- 
ready in  the  mind  of  the  Pope  and  in  the  desire  of  the 
Sacred  Collefre. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1599,  Clement  V^III  commanded 
Father  Bellarmine  to  accept  the  Cardinal's  hat.  The  holy 
Jesuit,  prostrate  at  his  feet,  begged,  with  tears,  to  be  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  humble  position  to  which  his  vocation 
had  called  him  ;  but  the  Pope  was  inexorable.  Even  the 
Father-General  himself,  upon  bended  knees,  had  suppli- 
cated the  Sovereign  Pontiff  not  to  expose  the  society  to 
the  ambitious  ideas  which  such  marked  favors  and  dis- 
tinctions mio-ht  o-ive  rise  to  in  the  minds  of  some.  But  he 
could  not  prevail  upon  the  Pope  to  yield  "  I  have  selected 
him,"  said  Clement  VIII,  "  because  the  Church  of  God 
does  not  possess  one  equal  to  him  in  learning." 

This  promotion,  naturally,  could  not  be  pleasing  to  the 
Sectarians,  as  it  appeared  in  the  light  of  a  protestation 
against  the  persecution  with  which  they  had  incessano'y 
honored  the  society.  But  a  few  months  previous,  they  had 
imputed  to  it  one  of  those  crimes  which  are  the  disgiac- 
of  humanity.      It  was  on  the  following  occasion: 

One  day,  a  laboring  man.  named  Peter  Panne,  approached 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER   CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.     2G7 

the  entrance  of  the  pahice  of  Maurice  of  Nassau,  and  thus 
addressed  the  guards  : 

"  Where  can  I  find  the  Duke  of  Nassau?" 

The  guards,  perceiving  his  excited  manner,  suspected 
that  he  was  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  and  arrested 
him.  When  examined.  Panne  admitted,  without  hesita- 
tion, that  he  had  been  sent  to  Leyden  by  two  of  the  lead- 
ing inhabitants  of  Brussels,  who  had  commissioned  him  to 
assassinate  the  Captain-Greneral  of  the  United  Provinces. 
The  heretics  eagerly  seized  the  occasion,  and  promised 
Panne  a  free  pardon  if  he  would  charge  the  Jesuits  with 
having  instigated  him  to  commit  the  crime. 

"Nothing  will  be  more  readily  believed,'"  said  they, 
"especially  as  you  have  a  relative  who  is  employed  at  the 
college  of  Douay,  and  have  been  several  times  there." 

The  miserable  fellow  agreed  to  the  infamous  terms,  and 
accused  the  Fathers.  He  was,  nevertheless,  condemned  to 
death,  and  avenged  himself  on  those  who  had  deceived  him 
by  retracting  the  false  charge  he  had  made.  He  was  exe- 
cuted on  the  22d  of  June,  1598. 

The  Protestants,  rejecting  his  dying  asseverations,  did  not 
fail  to  bring  the  formal  accusation  against  the  Jesuits.  It 
pleased  Providence,  however,  that  their  want  of  tact  should 
lead  to  a  betrayal  of  their  dishonesty.  They  so  confused  the 
names,  dates,  and  places  that  it  was  not  difficult  to  prove 
the  falsity  of  the  infamous  imputation.  This  was  done  by 
Father  Coster,  with  signal  success.  But  the  evil  spirit, 
who  is  at  times  sufficiently  ingenious,  suggested  to  the 
Calvinist  ministers  the  idea  of  turning  to  account  the  pam- 
phlet of  the  Father,  by  using  it  to  correct  the  signal  mis- 
takes they  had  made,  and  thus  presenting  a  statement  which 
would  appeal  to  the  public  credulity — a  matter,  unfortu- 
nately, not  too  difficult  of  accomplishment. 

Such  are  the  documents  upon  which  honest  Christians 
unwittingly  rely   when  they   become  the  mouthpiece   of 


268  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

prejudice,  without  giving  themselves  the  trouble  of  investi- 
gation. We  will  not  accuse  them  of  speaking  without 
knowing  what  they  say.  We  will  merely  remind  them  that 
it  would  be  more  reasonable,  and  more  worthy  of  them,  to 
endeavor  to  get  correct  information,  to  reflect,  and  after- 
ward to  decide  for  themselves. 

In  the  same  year,  1598,  some  Lutheran  cruisers,  in  the 
pay  of  Prince  Charles,  Duke  of  Sudermania,  seized  upon 
Father  Martin  Laterna,  preacher  of  the  King  of  Poland, 
and  threw  him  overboard.  Subsequently,  in  1600,  while 
the  Catholic  forces  were  besieging  Ostend,  the  Dutch, 
breaking  through  the  intrenchments,  perceived  three  Jes- 
uits leaning  over  the  wounded  soldiers  and  offering  them 
the  consolation  of  religion.  They  rushed  upon  the  three 
apostles  and  mercilessly  butchered  them.  These  martyrs 
were  Fathers  Laurence  Everard,  Otho  Camp,  and  Burelin. 

While  the  Swedish  Lutherans  thus  drowned  the  Jesuits, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Dutch  Calvinists  ferociously 
murdered  others,  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  which  was  ever 
in  accord  with  the  University,  seeing  the  attachment  of  the 
Provinces  for  the  Fathers,  who  had  kept  all  their  colleges 
out  of  its  jurisdiction,  on  the  18th  of  August,  1598,  "pro- 
hibits and  forbids  all  persons  from  sending  scholars  to  be 
educated  at  the  colleges  of  the  said  self-styled  society, 
wherever  situated,  and  orders  that  all  the  subjects  of  the 
Kino-  instructed  and  educated  in  the  said  colleges  of  the 
aforesaid  society,  either  within  or  without  this  kingdom, 
shall  not  enjoy  any  of  the  privileges  of  the  University, 
being  disqualified  from  receiving  its  degrees." 

Families  became  indignant  at  finding  their  paternal  au 
thority  thus  ignored,  and  they  declared  that,  if  the  colleges 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  were  prohibited  and  suppressed  in 
France,  they  would  send  their  children  to  be  educated  in 
foreign  countries  where  such  masters  were  duly  appre- 
ciated.    On  the  23d  of  September,  the  Parliament  of  Tou- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     269 

louse  issued  quite  a  contrary  decree,  forbidding  any  annoy- 
ance or  opposition  to  be  offered  to  the  Jesuits  in  their  minis- 
try or  colleges.  Bordeaux,  Limoges,  Lyons,  Dijon,  and  all 
the  large  cities,  also  protested  against  the  restriction,  and 
took  no  notice  of  the  threats  of  the  University  and  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.  At  the  same  time.  Father  Coton 
vigorously  attacked  the  heretics  of  Dauphiny,  completely 
silencing  their  most  renowned  theologians,  and  this  in  the 
presence  of  the  Parliament  and  the  highest  personages  of 
the  province.  Such  defeats  ought  to  have  enlightened 
them,  but  they  had  the  contrary  eff"ect  of  irritating  them 
still  more. 

Marshal  de  Lesdiguieres,  Calvinist  though  he  was,  liked 
to  see  Father  Coton,  whose  learning  and  eloquence  he 
admired,  and  with  whom  he  was  so  much  taken,  that  he 
frequently  spoke  of  him  to  the  King,  in  terms  as  warm  as 
could  have  been  expressed  by  the  most  zealous  Catholic. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Pope  demanded  at  the  hands  of  His 
Majesty  reparation  for  the  outrages  committed  against  the 
Jesuits  by  the  decrees  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  Henry 
IV  had  himself  already  felt  the  necessity  of  some  such 
measure,  but  still  he  desired  to  spare  the  Calvinists,  who 
were  exasperated  at  his  conversion  to  the  Church. 

In  the  mean  time,  he  wished  to  become  acquainted  with 
this  Father  Coton,  who  was  the  terror  and  the  admiration 
of  the  heretics.  Their  acquaintance  ripened  into  friend- 
ship, and  the  monarch  took  no  step  without  consulting 
the  Father.  The  Archbishopric  of  Aries  being  vacant, 
the  King  desired  that  it  might  be  filled  by  his  new  friend. 
"That  is  impossible,  Sire,"  replied  Father  Coton,  "On 
entering  the  Society  of  Jesus,  I  made  a  vow  never  to  accept 
any  ecclesiastical  dignity,  and  the  same  vow  is  taken  by  us 
all.  It  is  on  that  condition  alone  that  we  can  be  members 
of  the  society." 

The  King  fully  comprehended  and  appreciated  the  dis- 


270  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

interestedness  and  humility  which  had  inspired  St.  Ignatius 
with  the  idea  of  inserting  this  clause  in  his  constitution, 
and  he  commanded  his  Council  to  take  into  consideration 
forthwith  the  restoration  of  the  Jesuits.  In  the  month  of 
September,  1603,  he  presented  to  the  society  the  chateau 
of  La  Fleche  for  the  purposes  of  a  college  and  a  residence. 
The  Parliament  and  the  University  became  alarmed,  for 
they  foresaw  that  the  day  of  retribution  was  at  hand,  and 
it  was  decided  that  remonstrances  should  be  presented  to 
the  Kino;.  But  these  remonstrances  were  received  with  in- 
diflference.  The  King  replied,  firmly,  without  sparing  either 
the  University  or  the  Parliament:  "  If  people  did  not  learn 
better  in  their  colleges  than  elsewhere,  how  comes  it  that 
by  their  absence  your  University  is  deserted,  and  that,  not- 
withstanding all  your  decrees,  they  are  sought  for  at  Douay, 
at  Pont,  and  beyond  the  kingdom?" 

The  Parliament,  forced  to  yield  to  the  ro3^al  pleasure, 
thus  energetically  expressed,  submitted,  with  a  bad  grace, 
to  the  reestablishraent  of  the  Jesuits  in  Paris,  and,  on 
the  2d  of  January,  1604,  reluctantly  registered  the  royal 
edict  by  which  they  were  restored.  In  the  year  follow- 
insr,  the  monument  which  had  been  erected  to  commera- 
orate  the  crime  of  Chastel  was  demolished,  by  order  of 
the  King,  and  the  college  of  Clermont,  which  was  again 
opened  and  better  attended  than  ever,  became  a  brilliant 
witness  of  the  confidence  still  reposed  in  the  Jesuits,  in 
spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  calumny. 

Free,  at  length,  to  follow  the  bent  of  their  apostolical 
zeal,  the  Fathers  labored  actively  for  the  future,  by  em- 
ploying themselves  in  the  education  of  youth.  It  was 
not  sufficient  that  they  possessed  colleges  ;  they  found  it 
necessary,  also,  to  pay  some  attention  to  the  religious 
training  of  young  girls.  Fathers  de  Bordes  and  Ray- 
mond suiTirested  to  Madame  de  Lestonac  the  idea  of 
founding  a  religious  congregation  for  this  purpose,  under 


OENERALSlllP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.      271 

the  title  of  Notre  Dame.  This  institution,  established 
at  Bordeaux  in  IGOtJ,  is  not  the  same  as  that  bearintr 
th'e  same  name,  instituted  by  the  blessed  Pierre  Fourrier. 
This  latter  partially  owes,  also,  its  existence  to  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  for  it  was  with  the  concurrence  of  Father  Four- 
rier, a  Jesuit,  and  his  relative,  that  the  founder  compiled 
its  constitution.  It  was  likewise  a  Jesuit,  Father  Gon- 
theri,  who  first  conceived  the  idea  of  callins;  the  Ursu- 
lines  to  France.  Madeleine  Lhuillier,  of  St.  Beuve,  made 
him. an  oflfer  of  her  house,  situated  in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques, 
for  that  important  undertaking,  and  it  was  there  that 
were  established  the  first  religious  of  that  Order  in  Paris. 

The  recall  of  the  Jesuits  to  Paris  was,  to  the  society, 
a  triumph  which  its  enemies  could  not  pardon.  One  day 
the  King  had  Father  Coton  conducted  to  the  mother 
house  in  one  of  the  court  carriages.  An  unfortunate 
fellow,  who  had  watched  the  Father,  made  a  thrust  at 
him  with  a  sword,  and  slightly  wounded  him.  The  King 
and  the  court  showed  such  great  interest  for  him  that, 
after  his  recovery,  Henry  IV  said  :  "  This  thing  has  hap- 
pened opportunely,  to  prove  to  Father  Coton  how  much 
he  is  loved." 

In  1608,  the  King  commanded  the  Sire  of  Potrincourt, 
whom  he  had  just  named  Governor  of  Port  Royal,  in 
Canada,  to  take  with  him  two  Jesuits  to  preach  the  faith 
in  that  colony.  Potrincourt,  who  was  ardently  devoted 
to  the  Calvinists,  preferred  Protestant  ministers,  and  re- 
solved to  get  rid  of  the  Fathers  by  trickery.  When 
Fathers  Biard  and  Masse  presented  themselves,  on  the 
day  appointed  for  the  departure,  the  Governor  had 
already  sailed.  There  being  no  other  vessels  in  the 
port  of  Bordeaux  about  to  weigh  anchor,  the  two  mis- 
sionaries went  to  Dieppe,  and  found  a  ship  ready  to 
depart.  They  requested  permission  to  embark  in  their 
quality  of  bearers  of  dispatches  from  the  King ;  but 
25 


272  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  owners  of  the  vessel,  being  heretics,  replied  that 
they  were  ready  to  give  passage  to  any  priest,  provided 
he  were  not  a  Jesuit.  They  knew  the  sympathy  which 
the  Jesuits  excited,  wherever  they  appeared,  and  how 
eagerly  the  idolaters  sought  them.  This  predilection 
was  the  more  to  be  feared  for  New  France,  as  the  preach- 
ers of  heresy  w^ere  already  established  there. 

The  Marchioness  de  Guercheville,  whose  zeal  had  ob- 
tained Irom  the  King  a  mission  of  the  society  in  that 
colony,  wished  to  complete  the  work  which  had  been 
commenced,  and,  the  heretics  opposing  the  departure  of 
the  missionaries,  she  wished  to  compel  them  to  facilitate 
it.  It  sufficed  for  this  to  set  before  their  eyes  a  little 
gold,  which  she  did. 

Biencourt,  son  of  the  Governor,  was  desirous  of  enter- 
ing into  the  fishing  and  fur  trades,  but  he  had  not  the 
necessary  funds.  Madame  de  Guercheville  oflFered  to  join 
him  in  the  enterprise,  and  to  devote  to  it  a  part  of  her 
large  fortune,  the  only  remuneration  she  required,  as  her 
share,  being  the  passage  of  the  missionaries  in  the  vessel, 
which  she  would  charter,  and  their  maintenance  in  Can- 
ada. In  consequence  of  this  arrangement.  Fathers  Biard 
and  Masse  landed  on  the  coast  of  New  France  on  the 
12th  of  June,  1612. 

On  their  arrival,  the  Protestants  learned,  through  Bien- 
court, the  conditions  on  which  he  brought  them  over, 
and  immediately  calumny  seized  upon  this  fact,  and  spread 
the  report  that  the  Jesuits,  under  pretext  of  preaching 
ihe  Gospel,  had  come  to  New  France  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  trading  for  the  benefit  of  their  society,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  commerce  of  the  Calvinists,  whose  ruin  they 
had  vowed  to  accomplish.  The  Jesuits,  accustomed  to 
the  efi"orts  of  calumny,  and  strong  in  their  intentions, 
preached  the  Gospel  to  the  savages,  and  made  numerous 
converts  to  Christianity.     The  English  could  not  pardon 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   CLAUDIO  AQUA  VIVA.     273 

France  the  possession  of  an  x\.mcrican  colony,  and,  in 
1613,  they  made  a  sudden  attack  along  the  banks  of  the 
8t.  Lawrence,  destroying  the  villages  of  Pentecost  and 
Port  Royal,  and  rejoiced  at  meeting  the  Jesuits,  whom 
they  sought.  They  massacred  the  Brother-coadjutor, 
Gilbert  du  Thet,  and  conveyed  to  England,  as  prisoners, 
Fathers  Biard  and  Masse. 

The  Jesuits  were  always  ready  to  go  wherever  they 
were  desired.  When  the  Emperor  Rodolph,  at  war  with 
the  Turks,  offered  the  command  of  his  army  to  the  Duke 
de  Merca3ur,  the  valiant  captain  replied  : 

"  I  accept  this  mark  of  the  confidence  which  your 
Majesty  reposes  in  me ;  but.  Sire,  I  ask  you  for  Jesuits, 
that  I  may  be  better  assured  of  a  victory  ;  for  this  society 
has  always  the  God  of  armies  at  its  head,  and  my  opinion 
is  that  we  are  in  need  of  that  God  to  defeat  the  In- 
fidels." 

He  obtained  Jesuits,  who  assisted  at  the  battle  of  Stuhl, 
and  whose  devotedness  for  the  wounded  and  prayers  for 
the  success  of  the  Christian  host  were  acceptable  to  the 
God  of  armies.  The  victory  was  brilliant,  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Turks  complete. 

IX. 

The  English  Catholics  had  hoped  that  the  death  of 
Elizabeth  would  put  an  end  to  persecution,  but  they  were 
mistaken.  James  Stuart,  King  of  Scotland,  her  successor 
to  the  throne  of  England,  too  weak  to  resist  the  influ- 
ence or  the  intrigues  of  the  ministers  of  Elizabeth,  be- 
came a  tyrant  and  a  persecutor  like  her,  and  even  sur- 
passed her  in  his  cruelties.  The  Catholics  were  disheart- 
ened, and  some  of  them  had  appealed  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  and  to  the  Catholic  rulers,  imploring  their  inter 
vention  ;  but  the  representatives  of  England  insisted  that 
the  rule  of  their  Government  was  mild,  and  that  the  Pa- 


274  •      HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESTJS.      _ 

pists  enjoyed  perfect  liberty.  The  foreign  courts,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Holy  See,  appeared  to  be  convinced 
that  there  was  an  exaggeration  on  the  part  of  the  Catho- 
lics in  the  complaints  they  made. 

Some  young  nobles,  after  a  last  and  fruitless  attempt 
to  influence  the  ambassador  of  Spain,  concerted  together, 
with  a  view  of  devising  means  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
afflictions  under  which  their  country  suffered,  and  which 
caused  the  desolation  of  so  many  fimilies  in  the  three 
kingdoms.  The  Jesuits  preached  submission  and  patience, 
the  glory  and  the  joy  of  martyrdom,  but  religious  liberty 
appeared  to  these  young  minds  a  glory  still  more  to  be 
coveted,  and  they  desired,  at  any  price,  to  secure  it  for 
their  country.  They  calculated  that  an  insurrection  would 
be  too  difficult  to  organize,  that  it  would  be  opposed  by 
the  Jesuits,  and  that  it  was  necessary  that  as  few  as  pos- 
sible should  be  made  acquainted  with  their  secret,  so  that 
none  should  betray  them  to  the  Fathers.  These  young 
gentlemen  were  Roger  Catesby,  aged  thirty-three;  Thomas 
Winter,  of  the  house  of  Huddington ;  Thomas  Percy, 
of  Northumberland,*  and  John  Wright.  After  several 
suggestions  had  been  made,  discussed,  and  rejected,  the 
preference  was  given  to  that  of  Roger  Catesby. f  The 
execution  of  his  plan  required  a  long  time  and  the  most 
absolute  secrecy.  As  it  involved  the  triumph  of  the 
Catholic  religion,  the  young  fanatics  considered  it  un- 
necessary to  make  known  their  intentions  to  their  con- 
fessors, who,  in  their  opinion,  were  much  more  inclined  to 
suifer  martyrdom  than  to  insure  peace  to  their  flocks. 
The  Catholics  had  presented  a  petition  to  Robert  Ran- 
croft,  who  thus  replied: 


*  Distantly  related  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland. — Tr. 
f  Catesby  was  descended  from  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  North- 
amptonshire. — Te. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO    AQUAVIVA.    275 

"In  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  your  tortures  were  but  trifling,  for 
we  did  not  know  who  would  succeed  the  Queen.  Now  that  the 
King,  who  is  father  of  several  children,  is  in  full  possession  of 
the  throne,  we  must  see  the  end  of  the  last  Papist." 

This  cruel  answer  was  conclusive  for  the  conspirators, 
and  they  commenced  operations.  One  day,  Thomas  Win- 
ter, who  had  become  uneasy,  conununicated  to  lloger 
Catesby  that  his  conscience  was  troubled,  and  that  he 
wished  to  have  the  advice  of  the  Jesuits,  in  order  to  learn 
if  he  could,  without  being  guilty  of  sin,  continue  to  give 
his  sanction  to  the  conspiracy,  for  several  Catholics  would 
perish  by  the  same  blow  that  would  destroy  the  King  and 
his  ministers.  Catesby  was  no  less  alarmed  at  this  ter- 
rible consequence,  and  he  conceived  a  method  of  consult- 
ing the  Jesuits  without  informing  them  of  the  facts. 
Their  plan  was  to  place  barrels  of  gunpowder  in  a  cellar 
under  the  Parliament  House,  and  to  cause  them  to  be 
io-nited  while  the  members  were  there  assembled,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  King,  on  the  day  of  the  opening 
of  Parliament.  Catesby  thus  submitted  his  case  to  the 
Jesuits  and  other  Catholic  priests: 

"  Suppose  that  before  a  fortress,  which  an  officer  is  compelled 
to  take  by  storm,  some  Catholics  should  be  placed  in  the  foremost 
ranks  by  the  heretics,  what  would  be  his  duty?  Would  he,  in 
order  not  to  massacre  his  fellow-Catholics,  be  bound  to  spare  the 
guilty?  or  can  he,  without  scruple,  make  the  assault  according  to 
the  usages  of  war?" 

The  decision  of  the  casuists  was  conformable  to  the 
desires  of  those  who  consulted  them.  Father  Garnet 
answered  in  the  most  affirmative  manner,  feeling  assured 
there  was  nothing  else  involved  but  the  case  actually 
submitted  to  him.  The  conspirators,  being  satisfied,  re- 
tired, swearing  by  the  holy  Evangelists  to  keep  the  secret. 
25^ 


276  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

They  then  went  to  Father  Gerard,  assisted  at  his  mass, 
received  holy  communion  from  his  hands,  and  did  not 
reveal  to  him  a  single  word  of  their  horrible  plot. 

Christopher  Wright  and  Robert  Winter,  brothers  of 
the  conspirators,  were  admitted  into  the  secret,  but  this 
number  did  not  suffice  to  surmount  all  the  difficulties  in 
the  way.  They  subsequently  admitted  Everard  Digby, 
Thomas  Bates,  Ambrose  Rockwood,  John  Grant,  Robert 
Keyes,  and  Francis  Tresham,  all  of  whom,  except  Thomas 
Bates,  were  of  good  birth, 

Catesby,  seeing  that  his  plan  prospered,  aroused  the  ire 
of  the  Catholics  against  their  persecutors,  and  encouraged 
revolt,  while  the  Jesuits,  on  the  contrary,  urged  patience 
and  submission.  The  leader  of  the  conspirators  perceived 
that  the  voice  of  the  Jesuits  prevented  his  being  heard,  and 
from  that  time  the  Jesuits  were  an  obstacle  to  him.  He 
became  their  enemy,  and  inwardly  declared  against  them 
the  most  dangerous  and  disloyal  opposition;  for  it  was  the 
opposition  of  a  secret  enemy.  Father  Garnet,  the  Provin- 
cial, on  the  8th  of  May,  1605,  thus  wrote  to  Father  Parsons : 

"  All  are  desperate.  Divers  Catholics  are  offended  with  Jesuits. 
They  say  that  Jesuits  doe  impugue  and  hinder  all  forcible  enter- 
pi'izes.  I  dare  not  informe  myself  of  their  affairs,  because  of  pro- 
hibition of  F.  General  for  meddling  in  such  affairs.  And  so  I 
can  not  give  you  exact  accompt.     This  I  know  by  meare  chance." 

That  which  alarmed  the  good  Provincial  was  the  mys- 
teiious  language  of  the  conspirators,  announcing  that  the 
moment  of  deliverance  for  the  Catholics  was  at  hand;  that 
in  a  short  time  the  Church  would  shine  in  England  in  all 
its  splendor,  and  that  the  hour  of  justice  would  soon 
arrive  for  all.  The  Father  had  entreated  the  Holy  See 
to  threaten  with  excommunication  all  those  who  should 
become  associated  in  any  conspiracy;  but  Clement  VIII 
had  just  died,  and  his  successor  survived  his  election  but 


GENERAL8TTTP  OF   FATHER   CLATTDIO   AQUAVIVA.     277 

a  month,  and,  on  the  15th  of  May,  Caniilh^  Rorjihcsc  was 
proclaimed  Pope,  under  the  name  of  Paul  V.  All  this 
caused  delay,  and  the  London  conspiracy  continued  its  op- 
erations. Catesby  succeeded  in  keeping  up  hope.  Father 
Garnet  was  grieved  at  this,  and  thus  wrote  to  his  General: 

"All  the  English  Catholics  are  not  obedient  to  the  Pope's  com- 
mands. Even  during  the  lifetime  of  Clement  VIII,  there  were 
some  who  presumed  to  inquire  if  the  Sovereign  Pontitf  had  the 
power  to  prevent  them  from  defending  their  own  lives.  They 
openly  say  that  they  will  take  good  care  not  to  make  known  their 
intentions  to  the  priests.  They  complain  more  especially  of  us, 
because  we  oppose  their  machinations." 

Catesby,  seeing  that  the  Jesuits  were  sounding  the  dis- 
position of  the  Catholic  body,  and  that  they  feared  the 
existence  of  a  conspiracy,  sought  a  means  to  silence 
them,  and,  believing  he  had  hit  upon  a  plan,  sought  to 
put  it  into  execution.  He  went  to  Father  Oswald  Tex- 
mund,  whom  the  English  called  .  Father  Greenway,  and 
revealed  to  him  his  plan,  under  the  sacred  secrecy  of  the 
confessional.  Father  Texmund,  struck  with  horror  and 
dismay,  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  bring  him  back  to 
rational  and  Christian  reflections;  but  the  fanatical  con- 
spirator could  see,  in  the  success  of  his  scheme,  only  the 
salvation  of  England,  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  Church.  Nothing  could  modify  his  mistaken  no- 
tions nor  calm  his  enthusiasm.  He  would  only  make 
one  concession  to  the  «:ood  Father,  which  was  that  he 
authorized  him  to  confer  with  his  Provincial,  but  always 
under  the  sacred  seal  of  the  confessional. 

Francis  Tresham,  as  the  day  approached  for  the  open- 
ing of  Parliament,  feeling  a  remorse  of  conscience,  could 
not  reconcile  himself  to  the  sacrifice  of  so  many  lives,  to 
the  odium  which  he  would  thereby  bring  upon  the  Cath- 
olics of  Euirland,  and   to  contract  for  himself  and  them 


278  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Buch  a  debt  of  blood,  which  the  Protestants  wouhi  not 
fail  to  revenge  upon  the  Catholic  religion. 

Yielding  to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience,  he  gave  in- 
formation to  Cecil,  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  then,  re- 
turning to  his  friends  and  companions,  he  intimated  to 
them  that  the  minister  was  aware  of  the  existence  of  the 
plot,  and  informed  them  that  they  had  but  time  to  save 
their  lives  by  flight.  His  friends  would  not  believe  a 
word  of  all  this.  Havino'  arran2:ed  for  a  rising  of  the 
people,  as  soon  as  their  fatal  design  should  be  eff"ected, 
they  persevered  in  their  original  plan.  Percy  and  Winter 
held  themselves  in  readiness  to  head  the  London  move- 
ment; Catesby  and  John  Wright  went  to  lead  that  of 
Warwickshire;  while  Fawkes,  who  passed  for  the  servant 
of  Percy,  undertook  the  desperate  office  of  firing  the  mine. 

On  the  5th  of  November,  the  day  upon  which  the 
royal  sitting  was  to  be  held,  the  High  Bailiif  of  West- 
minster, accompanied  by  a  party  of  soldiers,  descended 
into  the  cellar,  where  they  discovered  the  barrels  of  gun- 
powder, and  apprehended  Guy  Fawkes,  who  carried  a 
lantern  and  was  furnished  with  matches  ready  to  set  fire 
to  the  train.*     He  arrested  him,  and  conducted  him  be- 

•••The  discovery  of  the  plot  is  attributed,  by  the  best  authorities,  to 
the  receipt  of  the  following  anonymous  letter,  addressed  to  Lord 
Mounteagle,  who  had  married  a  sister  of  Tresham  : 

"  My  Lord — Out  of  the  love  i  have  to  some  friends,  i  have  a  caer 
of  youer  preservation  ;  therefor,  i  would  advyse  youe  as  youe  tender 
youer  lyf  to  devyse  some  exscuse  to  shift  youer  attendance  at  this 
Farleament,  for  god  and  man  hath  concurred  to  punishe  the  wicked- 
nes  of  this  tyme  ;  and  thinke  not  slightlye  of  this  advertisment,  but 
retyere  youer  self  into  youer  contrie  whear  youe  maye  expect  the 
event  in  saftie  :  for  thoughe  theare  be  no  apparance  of  anni  stN'r,  yet 
i  sayes  they  shall  receyve  a  terribel  blowe  this  Parleament,  and  yet 
they  shall  not  seie  who  hurts  them  ;  this  concel  is  not  to  be  con- 
temned because  it  may  do  youe  good,  and  can  dp  youe  no  harme,  for 
the  danger  is  passed  as  soon  as  youe  have  burnt  the  letter,  and  i  hope 
god  will  give  youe  the  grace  to  mak  good  use  of  it,  to  whose  holy  pro- 
tection i  commend  youe." 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO   AQUAVIVA.     270 

fore  the  Council  of  Ministers,  presided  over  by  the  Kinj^. 
Fawkes  acknowledged  his  crime,  which  he  called  an  act 
of  lawful  defense  against  a  heretic  prince,  who  was  the 
persecutor  of  the  Catholics,  and  who  could  not  be  the 
Lord's  anointed,*  but  he  refused  to  discover  his  accom- 
plices, and  all  the  tortures  to  which  he  was  subjected 
could  not  extort  from  him  the  slightest  revelation.  On 
the  7th  of  November,  he  heard  that  his  associates  had 
taken  up  arms,  and,  it  being  impossible  that  their  names 
could  longer  be  ignored,  he  revealed  them. 

At  the  same  time,  the  Protestant  ministers  and  the  Scotch 
Puritans  rejoiced  to  possess  the  proofs  of  the  existence  of 
a  Catholic  conspiracy,  attributed  its  origin  to  the  Pope 
and  to  the  King  of  Spain,  whose  instruments  they  declared 
the  Jesuits  were,  and,  in  their  sermons,  excited  their  hear- 
ers to  massacre  the  Catholics  of  the  three  kingdoms,  espe- 
cially the  Jesuits,  who  had  organized  the  plot,  and  sought 
the  extermination  of  all  the  Puritans  and  Anglicans. 

Lingard  adds,  that  Lord  Mounteagle,  after  perusing  the  letter, 
carried  it  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  who,  having  read  it,  said  it 
was  only  a  hoax  to  frighten  them.  The  King  was  at  that  time  on  a 
hunting  party,  but,  on  his  return,  the  letter  was  shown  to  him,  and 
he  thought  more  seriously  of  it.  The  meaning  of  "  terrible  blow" 
he  attributed  to  gunpowder,  and  it  was  resolved  that  a  strict  search 
should  be  made  in  the  houses  and  cellars  adjoining  the  hall. 

On  the  evening  of  the  dth  of  November,  the  Lord  Chamberlain, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  all  was  prepared  for  the  opening  of 
Parliament,  visited  the  hall,  in  company  with  Lord  Mounteagle,  and 
they  entered  the  cellar,  as  if  by  chance,  and  inquired  by  whom  it 
was  occupied.  Fawkes,  who  was  present,  replied  that  his  master 
had  taken  it  as  a  wood-store;  upon  which  the  Chamberlain  replied 
that  he  had  made  abundant  provision.  They  then  departed,  without 
having  given  any  signs  of  suspicion.  Fawkes  remained  at  his  post, 
ready  to  fire  the  mine  on  the  following  day,  or  immediately  on  the 
appearance  of  danger. — Tk. 

*  A  Scottish  nobleman,  say  the  English  historians,  asked  him  why 
he  had  collected  so  much  gu<npowder.  He  replied,  "To  blow  the 
Scottish  beggars  back  to  their  native  mountains." — Tr. 


280  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Nevertheless,  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection  found  no 
response  in  the  hearts  of  the  Catholics.  However  great 
their  enthusiasm,  only  a  mere  handful  of  men  responded 
to  the  call  of  the  conspirators.  On  the  8th  of  Novem- 
ber, their  supply  of  powder  being  damp,  it  was  placed  be- 
fore a  fire  to  dry,  prior  to  an  impending  engagement, 
when  a  spark  ignited,  causing  it  to  explode,  severely  in- 
juring many  of  the  party.  Some  among  them,  seeing  in 
this  that  Providence  manifested  itself  against  their  fanat- 
ical undertaking,  fled  precipitately  across  the  field.  The 
others  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  King's  troops,  and  rushed 
daringly  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  Catesby,  Percy, 
and  the  brothers  Wright  fell,  mortally  wounded  ;  the  oth- 
ers were  made  prisoners. 

The  object  now  was  to  compromise  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
and  prove,  as  well  as  possible,  their  participation  in  the 
gunpowder  plot.  To  this  end,  the  ministers  of  King 
James,  the  Anglican  clergy,  and  the  magistracy  were  pre- 
pared to  sacrifice  all,  even  justice  and  truth  itself.  It  was 
necessary,  at  any  cost,  so  to  construe  the  answers  or  the 
silence  of  the  accused  as  to  implicate  the  Jesuits  in  the 
crime.  Bates,  seduced  by  the  promises  held  out  to  him, 
avowed  that  three  of  the  conspirators  had  Jesuits  for  con- 
fessors ;  that  these  were  Fathers  Garnet,  Texmund,  and 
Gerard ;  and  that,  a  few  days  before  the  5th  of  November, 
he,  Thomas  Bates,  had  seen  Father  Garnet  in  conversation 
with  Catesby.  This  was  more  than  necessary  to  satisfy 
the  heretics.     The  three  Fathers  must  be  arrested. 

The  edict  for  their  arrest  set  forth : 

"From  the  examinations,  it  is  evident  and  positive  that 
all  three  have  been  direct  abettors  of  the  conspiracy,  and, 
in  consequence,  are  not  less  guilty  than  the  actual  perpetra- 
tors and  concocters  of  the  plot." 

In  the  examinations,  they  were  not  satisfied  with  taking 
down  the  actual  testimony  of  the  accused,  but  they  inter- 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATUEIl  CLAUDIO   AQUAVIVA.     281 

polated  any  thing  that  might  tend  to  inculpate  the  Fathers, 
and,  when  these  written  accusations  were  read  over  to  the 
accused,  the  latter  protested  against  their  falsity,  declaring 
that  they  had  never  averred  that  any  of  the  Jesuits  were 
implicated  in  the  plot.  Fawkes,  who  had  simply  answered 
the  questions  put  to  him,  could  not  restrain  his  indignation 
on  hearing  his  evidence  read  over,  "  I  do  not  wish  to  deny 
that  which  applies  to  me  personally,"  he  exclaimed ;  "  but 
I  repudiate  that  portion  which  has  been  inserted  in  regard 
to  an  afiair  the  conception  and  carrying  out  of  which  was 
entirely  our  own.  If  any  one  among  us  has  any  thing 
to  make  known  against  the  Jesuits,  let  him  state  it,  or  else 
do  you  state  upon  whose  evidence  you  establish  the  fact  of 
their  guilt.  If  you  can  not  do  this,  what  have  the  Fathers 
to  do  in  our  trial  ?  and  why  is  the  attempt  made  to  inter- 
polate in  our  evidence  that  which  is  so  opposed  to  the 
truth?" 

Until  the  last  moment,  the  accused  protested  that  the 
Jesuits  were  in  total  ignorance  of  the  conspiracy;  but  their 
assertions  and  protestations  were  without  efi'ect,  in  the 
final  adjustment  of  documents  that  were  to  be  handed 
down  as  authentic  truths  in  the  history  of  British  justice. 
Posterity  must  see,  in  the  members  of  the  society,  traitors, 
assassins,  and  conspirators;  it  was,  therefore,  important  to 
bequeath  to  it  all  that  had  the  semblance  of  authenticity  in 
favor  of  those  interested,  and  to  endeavor  to  destroy  all 
that  might  serve  to  show  their  falsity.  But  Providence 
did  not  permit  this.  On  the  30th  and  31st  of  January, 
the  prisoners  died  upon  the  scaffold,  declaring  to  the  crowd 
by  which  they  were  surrounded  the  innocence  of  the 
Jesuits.  Some  of  their  accomplices  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
managed  to  escape,  and  were  cordially  received  by  Domi- 
nic de  Vic,  Governor  of  Calais.  Unfortunately  for  Eng- 
lish justice,  these  witnesses  could  and  did  speak.     Fathers 


282  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Gerard  and  Oswald  Texmund,  after  having  run  the  great- 
est risks,  succeeded  in  reaching  the  Continent.  Father 
Garnet  had  been  arrested  at  Hendlip,  near  Worcester,  in 
the  castle  of  Thomas  Abington.  Father  Oldcorne  was 
also  arrested,  as  well  as  the  two  servants  of  these  Fathers, 
Owen  and  Chambers.  John  Owen,  who  was  put  to  the 
torture,  expired  in  his  agonies  without  uttering  a  single 
word  against  the  Jesuits,  and  his  accusers  had  the  effrontery 
to  assert  that  he  committed  suicide  while  in  prison.  They 
imposed  upon  the  public  credulity  so  far  as  to  state  that 
he  ripped  open  his  bowels,  lest  he  should  compromise 
Father  Garnet. 

Father  Garnet  was  examined  more  than  twenty  tildes, 
in  presence  of  the  ministers,  and  always  without  affording 
his  enemies  any  advantage.  It  was  important,  however, 
that  he  should  be  found  guilty.  To  this  end,  the  report 
was  spread  that  the  Jesuit  had,  at  last,  avowed  his  crime  ; 
and,  according  to  a  letter  of  Father  Baldwin,,  dated  the 
15th  of  April,  1606,  the  secretary  of  King  James  informed 
the  British  minister  at  Brussels  that  Father  Garnet  ad- 
mitted that  he  was  the  first  instigator  of  the  plot.  Nay, 
they  did  even  more.  They  assured  the  several  ambassadors 
that  they  might  inform  their  respective  governments  of  the 
fact.  These,  however,  were  only  words,  and,  as  some  ap- 
pearance of  proof  was  required,  they  had  recourse  to  an 
infamous  expedient. 

A  villain  represented  himself  to  Father  Garnet  as  a  fer- 
vent Catholic,  deploring  his  captivity  and  the  tyranny  exer- 
cised against  the  Roman  religion,  and  offered  his  services 
to  facilitate  any  intercourse  he  might  desire  to  hold  with 
those  who  were  persecuted.  By  these  means,  he  succeeded 
in  winning  the  confidence  of  the  good  Father,  who  availed 
himself  of  the  offer  to  write  some  letters.  The  traitor 
took  charge  of  them,  and  placed  them  in  the  hands  of  the 


GENEllALSUIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.      283 

King's  minister;  but  they  did  not  contain  a  single  syllable 
which  could  be  turned  to  account.  It,  therefore,  became 
necessary  to  try  another  plan. 

One  day,  the  spy  of  Cecil  informed  his  victim  that  Father 
Oldcorne  had  just  been  transferred  to  the  Tower,  and  that 
he  might,  possibly,  succeed  in  obtaining  for  him  an  inter- 
view with  his  fellow-sufferer.  Such  a  proposition  ought 
to  have  opened  the  eyes  of  the  good  Father,  but,  in  the 
simplicity  of  his  innocence,  he  never,  for  a  moment,  sus- 
pected the  sincerity  of  this  Judas,  It  never  suggested 
itself  to  his  mind  how  it  was  that  such  an  ardent  Catholic 
could  be  so  trusted  and  possess  so  much  of  the  confidence 
of  his  persecutors.  He  fell  into  the  snare,  and  accepted  the 
proposition.  The  traitor  brought  the  two  prisoners  to- 
gether. They  were  not  in  the  same  compartment;  they 
could  only  see  and  hear  each  other ;  but  they  thought  they 
were  alone.  They  conversed  upon  their  position,  their 
sufferings,  and  the  condition  of  religion  in  England.  In 
the  exuberance  of  that  interview,  which  might  be  their 
last,  Father  Oldcorne,  alluding  to  the  plot  and  the  exam- 
inations he  had  undergone,  put  a  question  to  Father  Gar- 
net, to  which  the  latter  ingenuously  replied:  "There  ex- 
ists no  evidence  that  they  made  me  acquainted  with  it  j 
there  is  but  one  living  being  can  say  so." 

This  was  sufficient.  Two  persons  were  concealed  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  hear  all  that  was  said.  They  had  now  all 
that  they  desired.  The  traitor  reappeared,  and  announced 
to  the  Fathers  that  the  time  allotted  to  them  had  expired, 
and  that  they  must  separate.  Anglicanism  triumphed. 
Father  Garnet  was  again  examined.  They  accused  him  of 
being  cognizant  of  the  plot  and  of  not  revealing  it.  They 
repeated  the  words  he  addressed  to  Father  Oldcorne.  He 
answered  that  he  had  not  denounced  it,  because  the  secrets 
of  the  confessional  forbade  him  so  to  do.  He  was  sub- 
mitted to  all  sorts  of  torture,  and  they  endeavored  to  force 
20 


284  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

him  to  testify  to  the  correctness  of  the  examinations  in 
which  they  made  him  guilty;  but  he  refused,  for,  though  he 
had  never  read  them,  he  was  aware  how  much  they  had 
been  falsified.  Being  urged  upon  this  point,  he  replied: 
"  Might  not  those  who  have  dared  to  falsify  the  text  of 
Holy  Scripture,  also  change  the  words  and  meanings  of 
men?" 

The  Anglicans  had  no  reply  to  make  to  these  remarks, 
the  logic  of  which  completely  crushed  them. 

The  ministers  resolved  to  spare  his  life  for  sixty  days 
more,  in  order  to  prepare  the  people  for  this  execution. 
During  this  interval,  they  invented  letters  by  which  they 
made  him  avow  his  guilt,  and  they  spread  infamous  libels 
against  the  Holy  See,  as  well  as  against  the  societ}',  and 
especially  against  Father  Garnet.  On  the  3d  of  May,  1606. 
the  Provincial  of  England  was  conducted  to  the  scaffold, 
whence  his  pure  soul  ascended  to  heaven,  while  his  vener- 
able body  was  quartered  by  the  Anglican  executioners. 

Father  Oldcorne  had  met  his  death  on  the  scaffold  at 
Worcester,  on  the  17th  of  April,  on  the  charge  that  the 
conspiracy  having  failed,  he  had  neither  approved  nor  con- 
demned it,  consequently,  he  had  approved  the  plot,  and 
merited  death. 

Such  are  the  facts  of  the  gunpowder  plot,  unhappily  so 
celebrated  in  history.  We  regret  being  unable  to  afford 
more  space  here,  but  the  limits  we  have  prescribed  for  our 
work  will  not  permit  our  doing  so.* 

On  the  23d  of  June,  Father  Thomas  Garnet,  nephew 
of  the  martyr  Henry  Garnet,  Provincial,  was  executed  at 
Tyburn.  He  was  guilty  of  no  crime;  but  he  was  a  Jesuit, 
and,  as  such,  a  state  prisoner,  and  condemned  to  exile.  On 
the  eve  of  the  day  upon  which  he  was  to  be  shipped,  Ban- 

*M.  Cretineau  Joly,  who  has  had  at  his  disposal  the  necessary 
documents,  gives  all  the  details  that  could  be  desired,  in  his  History 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  3d  edition,  vol.  3,  page  60  to  105. 


GENERALSHIP  OP   FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     285 

croft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  visited  his  dungeon,  and 
hiid  before  him  the  oath  imposed  upon  the  Catholics, 
promising  him  liberty  on  condition  that  he  would  subscribe 
to  it.  The  Father  refused,  adding  that  he  was  ready  to 
take  another  one,  in  these  words  : 

"I  declare,  by  word  of  mouth,  before  the  Court  of 
Heaven,  and  it  is  the  sincere  expression  of  the  true  feeling 
of  my  heart,  that  I  will  have  toward  ray  lawful  King,  James, 
all  the  fidelity  and  obedience  due  to  His  Majesty  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  nature,  of  God,  and  of  the  true  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ.  If  this  pledge  of  my  loyalty  is  deemed 
insufficient,  then  I  submit  it  to  the  judgment  of  God  and 
of  the  whole  world.  No  King  can  require  greater  fealty 
than  that  which  the  law  of  God  ordains,  and  no  subject  can 
promise  and  swear  to  the  King  an  obedience  greater  than 
that  approved  of  by  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ." 

This  was  enough  in  the  eyes  of  the  Anglicans  to  change 
the  punishment  of  exile  into  that  of  death.  At  the  foot 
of  the  scaffold,  the  Earl  of  Exeter  endeavored  to  prevail 
upon  him  to  subscribe  to  the  oath,  adding,  "  You  may  even 
use  mental  reservation." 

"Life  and  liberty  are  of  little  importance  to  me,"  re- 
plied the  Father.  "  In  these  matters,  there  is  no  necessity 
for  dissimulation." 

Then  he  gave  an  account  of  his  short  career.  He  re- 
ferred to  the  consolations  with  which  his  soul  was  filled  by 
the  hope  of  the  happiness  which  awaited  him.  He  moved 
the  hearts  of  all  his  hearers,  and  concluded  with  this  af- 
fecting prayer : 

"0  Lord,  my  God,  may  thy  anger  against  this  king- 
dom be  appeased.  Take  not  vengeance  for  my  blood  on 
my  country  or  my  King.  Domine  ne  statuas  illis  hoc 
peccatum.  Forgive  the  apostate  priest,  Rowse,  who  be- 
trayed me;  Cross,  who  arrested  me;  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, who  put  me  into  chains;  Wade,  who  desired  my  death; 


286  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Montague,  and  the  witnesses.      May  I    see  them    all    in 
Heaven  !  " 

With  these  last  sublime  words,  the  holy  soul  ascended 
to  the  mansions  of  bliss.  He  had  passed  thirty-four  years 
on  earth. 

Shortly  after,  Almighty  Grod  called  to  himself  another, 
of  whom  Scotland  had  rendered  herself  unworthy.  Father 
John  Ogleby  had.  devoted  himself,  with  an  ardent  charity, 
to  the  salvation  of  Scotland.  One  day,  some  Puritans  of 
Glasgow  made  known  to  him  their  desire  to  abjure  Calvin- 
ism, and  desired  his  ministry  forthwith.  The  good  Father 
immediately  hastened  to  comply  with  their  request,  and  the 
Protestants,  who  had  sent  for  him,  delivered  him  up  to  the 
officers,  whom  the  ministers  of  the  Kinu:  had  charged  with 
this  cruel  pursuit  of  the  Jesuits.  Condemned  to  death, 
Father  John  Ogleby  was  executed,  like  a  common  malefac- 
tor, on  the  10th  of  3Iarch,  1615.  He  was  thirty-four  3'ears 
of  asre. 

Beneath  all  the  hatred  with  which  the  Society  of  Jesus 
has  been  pursued,  from  its  very  origin  down  to  our  own 
time,  a  careful  examination  and  investigation  will  always 
discover  either  heresy  or  envy,  suggested  by  the  evil  one, 
to  prevent  or  to  impede  the  work  of  God. 

X. 

The  government  of  the  republic  of  A^enice  had  been 
excommunicated  on  the  17th  of  April,  1606.  Excited,  fo^ 
a  long  time,  by  the  writings,  preachings,  and  discourses 
of  Brother  Paolo  Sarpi  and  Brother  Fulgenzio,  of  the 
Order  of  Servites,  who  were  devoted,  body  and  soul,  to  the 
heretics,  it  only  desired  some  pretext  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  the  Holy  See.  Not  finding  such,  the  Senate  had 
commenced  the  attack  which  would  lend  to  the  desired  rup- 
ture. They  had  just  put  forth  three  decrees  in  opposition 
to  ecclesiastical  rights  and  immunities,  and,  upon  its  own 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.  287 

private  authority,  it  had  delivered  up  two  priests  to  the 
secular  powers.  Against  this  the  Holy  See  had  protested 
in  vain.  Venice,  or  rather  its  government,  sought  to  be 
excommunicated,  in  order  publicly  to  quarrel  with  Rome. 
The  Bull  of  excommunication  was  issued  by  Pope  Paul  V. 
The  Senate  had  prohibited  any  of  the  clergy,  regular  or 
secular,  from  publishing  or  posting  up  the  said  excom- 
munication. Nevertheless,  during  the  nights  of  the  2d 
and  3d  of  May,  it  was  publicly  placarded  at  the  entrance 
of  five  churches. 

The  Senate  was  satisfied  ;  it  was  excommunicated.  War 
was  declared,  and  it  was  confident  of  victory.  On  the  6th 
of  the  same  month,  the  republic  declared  unjust  and  il- 
legal the  interdict  which  the  action  of  the  Senate  had 
drawn  down  upon  Venice,  and  they  ordered  all  regular  and 
secular  priests  to  pay  no  regard  to  it,  and  to  continue  the 
celebration  of  the  services  as  usual,  under  penalty  of  ban- 
ishment and  confiscation.  The  Jesuits  respected  the  Pon- 
tifical brief,  and  resigned  themselves  to  the  will  of  Provi- 
dence. On  the  10th  they  were  summoned  before  the 
Senate.     The  Doge,  Leonard  Donato,  examined  them. 

"What  do  you  intend  doing?  Will  you  obey  the  de- 
cree of  the  Senate,  or  will  you  submit  to  the  interdict?" 

"As  long  as  the  interdict  remains  in  force,"  replied  the 

Superior,  who  responded  for  all,   "  we  will  not  celebrate 

mass,  nor  will  we  preach,  and,  if  the  authorities  insist  upon 

^compelling  us  to  do  so,  we  declare  that  we  prefer  exile  and 

confiscation." 

On  the  same  day,  the  decree  banishing  the  Jesuits  was 
issued,  and  on  the  following  day  they  quitted  the  city,  to 
the  great  delight  of  Brother  Paolo  and  his  followers. 

"  Toward  the  hour  of  the  Angelus,^'  wrote  the  Superior 

to    the    Father-General,    "  the  gondolas    arrived,   and    we 

placed    in    them    the  few    articles  we   were    permitted   to 

take  with  us,  being  all  the  time  closely  guarded  by  the 

26* 


288  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

officers,  who  were  sent  to  watch  all  our  movements.  The 
Vicar  then  came  with  the  stewards.  Then,  having  in  our 
church  recited  the  litanies  and  the  prayers  for  travellers 
for  a  safe  journey,  we  directed  our  steps  toward  the  gon- 
dolas. There  were  assembled  all  our  sorrowing  friends, 
deploring  our  departure  ;  but  none  of  them,  however,  were 
allowed  to  come  near  us.  Thus  distributed,  on  four  boats, 
and  intermingled  with  the  soldiers  who  guarded  us,  we  left 
Venice." 

The  influence  of  the  Jesuits  was  so  great,  that  it  was 
thought  necessary  to  give  a  twofold  reason  for  their  ban- 
ishment. The  Theatines,  the  Capuchins,  and  Minors  were 
not  slow  in  imitating  the  example  of  the  Jesuits,  and  these 
were  followed  by  other  ecclesiastics,  and  the  Patriarch  had 
retired  to  Padua  ;  hence,  it  became  necessary  to  put  a  stop 
to  such  an  exodus,  and  to  convince  the  people  that  this 
state  of  affairs  was  all  the  work  of  the  Jesuits.  Brother 
Paolo  left  nothing  undone  to  produce  the  desired  effect 
upon  the  masses,  and,  guided  by  his  counsels,  the  Senate 
made  public  all  their  pretended  grievances  against  the  good 
Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  We  the  more  willingly 
reproduce  them  here,  that  these  unjust  imputations  have 
been  repeated  with  a  pertinacity  well  worthy  of  a  better 
cause,  and  that  it  appears  to  us  but  an  act  of  justice  to 
trace  back  the  merit  of  the  invention  to  its  original  au- 
thor, the  Venetian  apostate,  Paolo  Sarpi.  Here  are  the 
crimes  of  which  the  Jesuits  were  accused  by  the  Senate 
of  A^enice : 

1.  A  letter,  most  compromising  for  the  safety  of  the 
state,  but,  fortunately,  intercepted  by  the  government, 
proved  that  the  Superior  of  the  Jesuits,  well  informed  of 
the  secrets  of  the  republic,  betrayed  them  all  to  the 
Pope,  and  made  known  to  him  that  more  than  three  hun- 
dred youths,  of  the  highest  nobility,  were  ready  to  do  all 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER    CLAUDIO   AQUA  VIVA.     289 

that  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  might  command.     This  clearly 
showed  that  the  Jesuits  were  plotting. 

2.  The  Senate  had  discovered  that  they  made  use  of 
the  confessional  insidiously  to  pry  into  family  and  state 
secrets. 

3.  They  sent  twice  a  year  to  their  General  a  detailed 
account  of  the  state  of  the  military  forces,  finances,  and 
resources  of  the  republic. 

4.  They  had  asked  the  Pope  to  excommunicate  the 
Government  of  Venice. 

As  to  proofs,  they  totally  failed;  but  the  popular  cie- 
dulity  never  requires  them,  and  Paolo  was  aware  of  this. 
On  the  14th  of  June  the  Senate  decreed  that  the  Jesuits 
were  banished  in  perpetuity,  and  that  their  confiscated 
property  should  be  applied  to  charitable  uses.  On  the 
11th  of  July,  Canage  de  Fresne,  French  ambassador  at 
Venice,  wrote  to  Villeroi : 

"  The  nullity  and  injustice  of  the  excommunication  are 
preached  on  every  feast,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  city.  Already 
the  people  consider  the  Pope  as  the  enemy  of  their  salvation, 
who  would  rather  deprive  them  of  the  Christian  faith  than  limit 
his  riches  or  ambition;  already  the  confessions  of  the  .Jesuits 
are  the  theme  of  conversation  in  the  taverns  and  drinking 
houses;  already,  the  authority  of  the  Inquisitors  is  overthrown,  and 
license  given  to  printers  to  publish  all  sorts  of  books  which  as- 
sail the  Pontificate.  God  knows  how  the  Italian  mind  will  ben- 
efit thereby." 

These  books  came  from  England  and  Geneva,  addressed 
to  Brother  Paolo  and  Brother  Fulgenzio,  his  accomplice. 
Both  one  and  the  other  had  formed  an  association  of 
independence,  the  end  of  which  was  to  estrange  the  re 
public  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  order  to  make  it 
over  to  Protestantism.  The  latter  point  was  a  difiicult 
one    to    attain    with  the    Italians,    whose    expansive    and 


290  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ardent  nature  require  all  the  exterior  pomp  of  Catholic 
worship. 

The  confiscated  property  was  to  be  appropriated  to 
charitable  works.  So  the  decree  provided.  But  those  who 
had  provoked  the  measure  considered  it  more  to  their 
advantage  to  take  possession  of  it  themselves.  Brother 
Fulgenzio,  finding  the  example  of  the  Protestants  and 
the  members  of  the  University  a  good  one  to  imitate, 
installed  himself,  of  his  own  free  will  and  responsibility, 
in  the  house  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Cardinal  Joyeuse, 
who  was  charged  by  Henry  IV  to  propose  his  mediation 
between  Rome  and  Venice,  did  not  obtain  the  least  suc- 
cess. Far  from  it.  The  public  mind  was  excited,  and  war 
was  about  to  be  declared  between  the  republic  and  the 
States  of  the  Church. 

Father  Aquaviva,  seeing  the  obstinacy  of  the  repub- 
lic, and  desiring,  above  all,  the  reconciliation  of  that  state 
with  the  Holy  See,  implored  the  Pope  to  pass  over  the 
claims  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  to  content  himself 
with  urging  the  recall  of  the  other  orders.  Paul  V  took 
particular  ofiense  at  the  exclusion  of  the  Jesuits,  as  it  was 
proved  that  they  had  been  banished  because  they  upheld 
the  rights  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff;  but  the  General  of 
the  society  prevailed  upon  him  to  accept  the  exclusion 
of  his  Order,  at  least  for  the  present.  This  concession 
brought  about  peace,  which  the  republic  had  no  longer 
any  pretext  for  refusing. 

The  five  Jesuits,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  went  to  carry 
the  help  and  consolation  of  their  holy  ministry  to  the 
Catholic  captives  at  Constantinople,  had  met  their  death 
while  bestowing  the  treasures  of  their  sublime  charity 
upon  the  plague-stricken  people.  In  1609,  Father  Canilac 
and  four  other  Jesuits  went  to  replace  them.  The  Vene- 
tian ambassador,  desiring  to  merit  the  good  opinion  of 
his  government,  sought   to   persuade   the   Porte    that   the 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQTJAVIVA.      291 

Jesuits  were  merely  spies  of  the  court  of  Rome,  who  vis- 
ited other  countries  under  pretext  of  apostleship,  but,  in 
reality,  to  incite  the  people  to  revolt  against  their  sover- 
eign. The  Porte,  finding  itself  sufficiently  enlightened 
by  this  absurdity,  caused  the  Jesuits  to  be  imprisoned. 
However,  the  ambassador  of  the  haughty  republic  was 
soon  contradicted  by  the  ambassadors  of  France  and  Ger- 
many, who  demanded  the  immediate  release  of  the  prison- 
ers, and  an  authorization  for  the  holy  religious  to  exercise 
their  apostolical  ministry  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Let  us  here  again  remark,  that  it  is  ever  heresy  that 
backs  up  the  attacks  made  upon  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
This  one  was  due  to  the  apostate  brother  Paolo,  while  a 
Catholic  served  him  for  an  instrument  and  mouthpiece. 

XI. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  had  had  to  sustain  great  contests 
since  the  accession  of  Father  Claudio  Aquaviva.  It  re- 
quired all  the  wisdom,  ability,  and  virtues  of  that  General 
to  direct  the  whole  of  its  movements,  in  all  quarters  of  the 
globe,  during  that  obstinate  war  of  the  spirit  of  evil, 
which  neither  gave  it  peace  nor  relaxation,  but  which, 
nevertheless,  could  not  diminish  its  zeal  or  aifect  its  spirit 
of  charity.  In  Belgium,  England,  France,  and  Italy,  and 
even  in  the  distant  East,  calumny,  persecution,  tortures, 
exile,  or  death  were  the  rewards  of  its  glorious  works,  of 
its  indefatigable  apostleship,  and  of  its  heroic  devotion. 
Strange  fact !  this  Order,  so  much  abused,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  so  much  beloved,  seemed  to  prosper  by  humiliation 
and  augment  by  calumny.  Vocations  daily  increased  for 
this  Institute,  which  had  no  other  inducement  to  offer  but 
disgrace,  persecution,  and  the  scaffold !  For  every  re- 
flecting mind,  this  was  then,  and  is  to-day,  one  of  the 
Divine  marks  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 


292  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

From  the  time  of  the  reconciliation  of  the  republic  of 
Yenice  with  the  Holy  See,  peace  appeared  to  be  restored 
to  the  Jesuits  in  the  greater  part  of  Europe.  Father 
Aquaviva  took  advantage  of  this  truce,  to  urge  the  mat- 
ter of  the  canonization  of  the  holy  founder  of  his  Order, 
and  that  of  the  great  xlpostle  of  the  Indies  and  Japan. 
The  sovereigns  of  all  those  countries  where  the  Society 
of  Jesus  was  known  and  appreciated,  conjured  the  Holy 
See  to  grant  that  which  was  so  much  desired  by  the 
Catholic  world.  Henry  IV,  ever  ready  to  show  his  ven- 
eration for  the  society,  the  spirit  and  constitution  of 
which  he  admired  as  much  as  he  appreciated  its  learning 
and  labors,  joined  his  entreaties  to  those  of  the  Kings  of 
Europe  and  Japan. 

The  Calvinists  could  not  forgive  the  King  for  this  brill- 
iant mark  of  his  esteem  for  the  societ}'^,  and  the  Jesuits 
soon  had  to  answer  for  it. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1610,  a  sinister  rumor  suddenly 
agitated  the  city  of  Paris.  Terror  was  portrayed  in  every 
countenance ;  every  eye  was  moistened  with  tears,  every 
heart  touched  with  grief.  Consternation  and  grief  were 
universal.  Henry  IV  was  dead !  The  best  of  kings  had 
been  assassinated!  To  the  Society  of  Jesus  this  was  an 
immense  loss.  Henry  IV  had  protected,  respected,  and 
sincerely  loved  the  Institute,  and  was  always  happy  to  give 
it  proofs  of  his  affection.  Never  had  it  experienced  at  his 
hands  but  marks  of  encouragement  and  favor.  It  had  all  to 
fear  for  its  future  position  in  France  in  the  loss  of  the  mon- 
arch, who  had  ever  been  its  defender  and  support.  Father 
Armand,  the  Provincial,  and  Father  Coton,  the  King's  con- 
fessor, received  from  the  Prince  of  Conti  the  heart  of  the 
monarch,  which  he  had  bequeathed  to  them,  and  which, 
according  to  his  desires,  they  conveyed  to  La  Fl^che. 

During  their  absence,  the  Parliament  and  the  Univers- 
ity, without  calling  in  question  the  inconsistency  or  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     293 

absurdity  of  the  calumny,  spread  tlie  report  that  the  as- 
sassin of  the  King  was  the  agent  of  the  Jesuits.  The  cir- 
cumstantial evidence  was  conclusive.  Six  months  before, 
Ravaillac  had  been  seen  talking  in  public  with  Father 
Aubigny,  in  the  church  of  the  Professed  House  !  Hence, 
Ravaillac  was  known  to  the  Jesuits,  and,  as  they  were  ac- 
quainted with  him,  it  was  clear  that,  at  their  instigation, 
he  had  assassinated  the  monarch,  who,  humanly  speaking, 
was  their  greatest  support  in  France,  and  who,  they  might 
well  fear,  could,  for  them,  never  be  replaced. 

This  was  not  all.  Ravaillac  had  once  spoken  to  Father 
Aubigny;  hence,  Ravaillac  had  read  a  work  of  Father 
Mariana,  published  in  Spain,  in  the  Latin  language,  which 
taught  that  the  assassination  of  tyrants  was  permissible. 
Ravaillac  was  ignorant  of  the  Latin  tongue,  besides  which, 
to  the  very  last,  he  asserted  that  he  had  never  communi- 
cated to  any  person  in  the  world  his  project  for  the  mur- 
der of  the  King.  This  mattered  not.  The  Parliament 
and  University,  desiring,  at  all  hazards,  that  the  Jesuits 
should  be  deemed  responsible  for  this  crime,  endeavored 
to  prove  their  guilt  by  ordering  that  the  work  of  Father 
Mariana  should  be  publicly  burned  by  the  executioner. 

It  suited  both  the  Parliament  and  the  University  to 
ignore  the  fact  that  the  same  book  had  been  condemned 
and  disowned  by  the  Society  of  Jesus.  They  forgot  that 
the  doctrine  of  regicide  was,  at  the  time,  a  subject  of  con- 
troversy in  all  the  theological  schools  ;  that  it  had  its  sup- 
porters in  every  religious  order,^  in  all  the  universities, 
and  that  the  Calvinists  and  Lutherans  openly  professed  it 
in  their  sermons  and  teachings.  In  fine,  they  were  obliv- 
ious of  the  fiict  that,  during  the  League,  they  themselves 
had  maintained  that  doctrine  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm. 
The  doctors  of  the  University  of  Paris  should  have  borne 


*  Father  Aquaviva  had  forbidden  those  of  his  Order  to  sustain  the 
proposition. 


294  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OE    JESUS. 

in  mind  how  tliey  Lad,  at  that  time,  accused  the  Jesuits  of 
indiifereuce  on  this  point — an. indifference  which  then  was 
denounced  as  a  crime.  But  all  recollection  of  the  cir- 
cumstances seemed  to  vanish  before  the  desire  to  accuse 
.the  Society  of  Jesus,  which  was  the  guilty  cause  of  the 
desertion  that  had  taken  place  from  the  classes  of  the 
University.  Christian  orators  sided  with  them.  Some, 
excited  by  their  friends  of  the  Parliament  or  of  the  Uni- 
versity, supported  them  by  their  eloquence,  and,  on  the 
6th  of  June,  might  be  heard  a  quondam  religious  of  the 
Celestines,  named  Dubois,  exclaiming,  in  a  most  pathetic 
tone  : 

"  Henry  IV — another  Alexander,  great  King,  the  terror 
of  the  world — had  you  believed  your  faithful  doctors,  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Parliament,  you  would  now  be  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  life.  Henry,  our  good  King,  is  dead. 
I  know  it  well.  Who  killed  him,  I  know  not.  Who 
were  the  instigators?  Read,  gentlemen,  for  yourselves. 
The  tiger  is  such  an  inveterate  enemy  to  man,  that,  on 
merely  seeing  his  image,  his  fury  is  so  great  that  he  tears 
it  to  pieces.  These  men,  more  cruel  than  the  tiger,  ene- 
mies of  God,  could  not  bear  to  see  the  good  King,  His 
image;  hence  they  have  had  him  put  to  death  by  an  in- 
famous assassin.  Gentlemen  of  Paris,  be  no  longer  blind. 
They  have  deprived  us  of  our  King.  Let  us  preserve 
the  one  we  have,  and  the  remainder  of  his  posterity. 
Let  us  pray  God  for  the  King,  the  Qneen,  and  all  the 
Council.  Let  us  mortify  ourselves,  for  God  has  afflicted 
us;  and  let  us  look  to  ourselves,  let  us  be  watchful,  for 
they  also  seek  to  deprive  us  of  this  one.  And  do  not  allow 
yourselves  to  be  deceived  by  those  fine  pretensions,  by 
those  confessions,  those  communions,  those  discourses, 
and  spiritual  conferences;  for  they  are'  but  the  allurements 
and  ruses  of  the  devil." 

The  Queen  Regent,  the  Chancellor,  and  the  Bishop  of 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     295 

Paris  desired  to  put  a  stop  to  these  absurd  imputations. 
The  prelate,  feeling  it  to  be  his  duty  to  express  his 
views,  published  the  following  letter,  of  which  the  original 
is  still  extant: 

"Henry  de  Gondy,  Bishop  of  Paris,  Counsellor  of  the   Kino 
IN  THE  Privy  Council  of  the  State,  etc.: 

"As  it  appears  that,  since  the  cruel  parricide  committed  on  the 
person  of  the  deceased  King,  which  God  forgive,  several  reports 
have  been  spread  in  this  city  of  Paris,  to  the  great  prejudice  of 
the  Jesuit  Fathers,  we,  desirous  of  preserving  the  honor  and  rep- 
utation of  that  Ordei",  having  fully  seen  that  such  reports  have 
originated  only  in  ill-will,  founded  on  animosity  against  the  said 
Fathers,  do  by  these  presents  declare,  to  all  those  whom  it  may 
concern,  that  the  said  reports  are  frauds  and  calumnies,  mali- 
ciously invented  against  them,  to  the  detriment  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  Religion;  and  not  only  that  the  said 
Fathers  are  free  from  such  blame,  but,  moreover,  that  their  Oi^der 
is,  by  its  doctrine,  as  well  as  by  its  edifying  life,  of  the  greatest 
service  to  the  Church  of  God  and  to  this  state.  In  testimony 
whereof,  we  have  executed  these  presents,  which  we  have  signed 
with  our  hand,  sealed  with  our  seal,  and  caused  to  be  counter- 
signed by  our  Secretary. 

"Paris,  this  twenty-sixth  day  of  June,  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  ten." 

The  enemies  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  seeing  that  the 
court  still  protected  it,  and  that  Father  Coton  had  just 
been  appointed  confessor  to  the  young  King,  in  spite  of 
all  the  reports  of  the  University  and  all  the  accusations 
of  the  Parliament,  conceived  the  most  infamous  fables  to 
destroy  the  Jesuits,  and  Father  Coton  especially,  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Regent.  They  put  forth  a  libel  entitled 
Arti- Coton,  which  was  attributed  to  Peter  Dumoulin,  a 
Protestant  minister,  of  Charenton,  and  printed  by  the 
Calvinists.  It  was  easy  for  Father  Coton  to  defend  him- 
self against  the  odious  calumnies  of  which  he  was  the 
object,  and  to  produce  proofs  of  his  innocence;  but  it 
27 


296  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

was  difficult  for  the  author  of  the  libel  to  advance,  in  hia 
turn,  the  proofs  of  the  statements  he  had  dared  to  make. 
He  could  not  produce  a  single  one,  and  found  himself 
quickly  silenced.  This  did  not  prevent  the  Parliament 
making  fresh  efforts  to  bring  about  the  ruin  of  the  Jes- 
uits. But  the  clergy,  princes,  and  nobility,  as  well  as  the 
Council  of  the  Regency,  felt  the  necessity  of  educating 
future  Catholic  generations,  who  should  be  able  to  resist 
the  attacks  or  allurements  of  heresy  ;  and  the  Jesuits, 
being  without  rivals  in  the  art  of  instruction,  were  re- 
tained in  France,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  their  en- 
emies. 

Father  Coton  was  continued,  in  his  capacity  of  confessor, 
near  the  person  of  the  young  King;  Father  John  de  Suf- 
fren  was  appointed  confessor  to  the  Queen  Regent;  and 
Father  Marguestaud,  confessor  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth. 
The  court  thus  protested  against  the  enemies  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Jesus,  and  this  protestation  was  of  the  greatest 
importance. 

The  Prince  of  Conde,  who  had  abjured  Calvinism,  de- 
clared himself  in  favor  of  the  Jesuits,  and  aided  and  as- 
sisted in  sending  them  to  Bern}^,  in  conjunction  with  Mar- 
shal de  la  Chatre,  while  the  Duke  of  Longueville  favored 
them  in  Picardy  by  augmenting  their  houses  there.  Car- 
dinal Joyeuse.  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  being  likewise  de- 
sirous of  showing  his  confidence  in  the  Jesuits,  called 
them  to  take  charge  of  his  seminary,  and  founded,  at  his 
own  expense,  one  of  their  houses  at  Pontoise. 

At  Paris,  the  University  was  more  deserted  than  ever. 
The  public  had  confidence  only  in  the  mild  and  paternal 
education  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  and  soon  eleven  of  the 
principal  colleges  of  the  Quartier  Latin  were  united  to 
those  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  triumph  exceeded  the  most 
^anguine  expectations  of  their  friends. 

^0   any  serious  mind,  ought  not  this   to  have  clearly 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     297 

shown  the  finger  of  God?  Tlie  Calvinists  felt  it,  and 
their  hatred  for  the  Jesuits  was  the  more  bitter.  Com- 
pelled to  respect  them  in  France,  they  endeavored  to 
compensate  for  it  elsewhere. 

On  the  5th  of  July,  IGll,  an  insurrection,  headed  by 
the  heretics,  broke  out  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  insur- 
gents threw  open  the  prisons,  took  possession  of  the  Town 
Hall,  and  arrested  the  chief  magistrates.  Three  Jesuits 
were  encountered  by  these  men,  who  were  maddened  by 
fury  and  thirsting  for  Catholic  blood.  The  Jesuits  were 
Fathers  John  Fladius,  Nicholas  Smith,  and  Bartholomew 
Jacquinot,  Superior  of  the  Professed  House  at  Paris. 
The  rioters  rushed  upon  them,  crying  out  that  they  would 
be  avenged  on  the  Papists.  The  Catholics  rescued  the 
Fathers  from  their  blood-stained  hands;  but,  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  night,  the  college  was  attacked  by  the  Protest- 
ants. Father  Philip  Bebius  desired  to  address  the  assail- 
ants, but  he  fell  under  their  blows,  and  the  mob  rushed 
into  the  college.  All  the  Fathers  were  made  prisoners, 
and  dragged  to  the  Town  Hall.  They  were  about  to  be 
put  to  death,  when  a  voice  was  heard,  exclaiming  that  one 
of  the  Fathers  was  a  Frenchman.  Immediately  the  lead- 
ers, feeling  sure  that  France  would  avenge  the  blood  of 
her  children,  decided  that  the  French  Jesuit  should  be 
restored  to  freedom.  * 

"No!"  replied  Father  Jacquinot,  "I  will  never  consent 
to  be  separated  from  my  brothers,  all  of  whom  are  as 
innocent  as  I  am." 

"  We  do  not  give  you  your  liberty  on  account  of  your 
innocence,  but  only  because  you  are  a  French  subject." 

"In  our  society,"  rejoined  the  Father,  "we  recognize 
neither  German  nor  French.  We  are  all  brothers.  Either 
my  brothers  shall  be  set  free  with  me,  or  I  will  die  with 
them." 

The  insurgents  dared  not  go  further.     The  assistance 


298  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

asked  by  the  Catholics  to  suppress  the  insurrection  wag 
soon  at  hand,  and  the  Jesuits  were  restored  to  liberty; 
but  it  was  not  until  the  4th  of  December  that  they  were 
able  to  return  to  their  house,  and  again  take  possession 
of  their  church,  which  the  sacrilegious  Protestants  had, 
during  some  days,  made  the  scene  of  their  most  ignoble 
orgies. 

In  the  same  year,  the  Jesuits  of  Prague  felt  the  effects 
of  the  civil  war  which  existed  between  the  partisans  of 
the  Princes  of  Neuburg  and  those  of  the  Princes  of 
Brandenburg.  The  heretics,  having  taken  up  arms  under 
the  pretext  of  repulsing  the  Imperial  forces,  rushed  upon 
the  religious  houses,  and  there  gave  themselves  up  to  the 
greatest  excesses.  The  convents  of  the  Dominicans,  Bene- 
dictines, and  Canons  Regular  were  ransacked,  the  churches 
profaned,  and  the  statues  of  the  saints  broken  and  burned. 
They  erected  a  sort  of  pile,  consisting  of  the  paintings, 
ornaments,  and  statues  taken  from  the  churches,  bound 
fourteen  Franciscans  on  this  pile,  to  which  they  then  set 
fire,  and  watched  the  death-struggles  of  their  heroic  vic- 
tims expiring  under  this  horrible  torture! 

The  toleration  of  heresy,  and  its  respect  for  liberty  of 
conscience,  did  not  stop  here.  A  Protestant  exclaimed 
that  three  hundred  soldiers,  and  a  store  of  arms  and  am- 
munition, were  concealed  at  the  Jesuits'.  From  the  very 
foundation  of  the  society,  this  same  bugbear  had  ever 
formed  part  of  the  programme  of  every  revolution,  and  it 
succeeded  as  well  at  Prague  as  elsewhere.  The  Protest- 
ant bands  proceeded  en  masse  to  the  college,  where  they 
possessed  themselves  of  all  that  was  portable;  but  we 
must,  in  justice  to  them,  say  that  not  one  of  the  sacri- 
legious plunderers  ever  dreamed  of  looking  for  the  three 
hundred  soldiers  and  the  munitions  of  war.  Each  one 
was  content  in  having  his  share  of  the  profanation,  pil- 
lage, and   devastation.     The    Fathers  were    torn   by   the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  TATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     299 

Catholics  from  the  blind  fury  of  these  demented  ruffians. 
All  the  loss  they  sustained  was  their  house  and  the  church, 
which  they  soon  saw  restored.  But,  no  matter.  Protest- 
ant historians  have  written  that  the  Jesuits  had  concealed 
three  hundred  soldiers,  and  the  rest,  and  there  are  some 
Catholics  who  are  simple  enough  to  believe  it,  and  to  re- 
peat it  like  harmless  echoes. 

XIT. 

The  metropolis  of  the  Portuguese  Indies,  that  city  of 
Goa  which  was  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  its  illustrious 
Apostle,  Francis  Xavier,  and  which  had  the  honor  of  pos- 
sessing his  venerated  remains,  was  thrown  into  a  state  of 
no  common  excitement  on  a  certain  day  in  the  early  part 
of  1585.  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  and  Indians  were  equally 
perplexed,  and  sought  to  discover  the  cause.  From  the 
evening  of  the  day  previous,  public  curiosity  had  been 
aroused  by  the  arrival  of  a  personage  whose  appearance  and 
cortege  denoted  his  high  rank.  He  had  entered  the  city 
mounted  on  a  white  elephant,  caparisoned  with  so  much 
magnificence  that  every  one  wondered  if  any  but  the  great 
monarchs  of  Asia  could  presume  to  appear  in  such  brilliant 
and  costly  array.  All  the  persons  who  composed  his  suite 
were  habited  in  the  most  splendid  costume,  and  mounted 
on  the  finest  elephants.  On  the  very  day  following  his 
grand  entrance  into  the  city,  this  high  personage,  all  cov- 
ered with  gold  and  precious  jewels,  presented  himself  at 
the  palace  of  the  government,  and  remained  a  long  time 
in  conference  with  the  Viceroy.  Thence  he  proceeded  to 
the  Jesuits,  where  he  still  was.  His  reappearance  was 
awaited  with  as  much  impatience  as  if  each  one  had  to 
discover,  in  his  countenance,  the  true  cause  of  his  presence 
at  Goa,  and  the  purport  of  his  visit  to  the  Fathers  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  Very  soon  their  curiosity  was  satisfied, 
and  here  is  what  they  ascertained : 
27* 


300  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Father  Riidolphus  Aquaviva,  as  has  been  seen,  waa 
massacred  at  Salsette.  The  grand  Mogul  Akebar,  who 
had  parted  from  him  with  regret,  was  plunged  into  the 
deepest  sorrow  on  hearing  of  his  martyrdom,  and  he  had 
sent  an  ambassador  to  the  Viceroy  of  the  Portuguese  In- 
dies and  to  the  Jesuits  of  Goa,  to  express  to  them  his 
feelings  at  their  loss,  and  to  convey  to  them  his  desire  that 
another  priest  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  should  come  to  his 
court.  This  was  the  cause  of  the  magnificent  embassy 
which  had  caused  so  much  excitement.  Father  E-udolphus 
Aquaviva  had,  apparently,  reaped  no  other  fruit  from  his 
sojourn  in  the  Mogul  Empire  but  that  of  pleasing  the 
Emperor.  And  it  is  not  to  be  pleasing  to  men  alone  that 
the  Jesuits  make  themselves  beloved  by  mankind  ;  it  is 
to  gain  them  to  God.  When  they  can  not  attain  this  end, 
they  carry  elsewhere  the  gentle  attractions  of  their  apos- 
tolic zeal.  The  Fathers  of  Goa  thought  it  their  duty  to 
defer,  for  a  time,  yielding  to  the  expressed  desires  of 
Akebar,  and  it  was  only  in  the  course  of  the  year  1595 
that  the  Provincial  sent  him  Father  Geronimo  Xavier, 
nephew  of  the  great  apostle,*  who,  supported  by  the 
saint's  powerful  protection,  was  more  successful  in  his 
apostleship  than  Father  Aquaviva  had  been.  The  time 
of  grace  had  come,  not  for  the  sovereign,  but  for  his  sub- 
jects. God,  whose  designs  are  always  impenetrable  and 
ever  adorable,  had  made  use  of  the  affection  with  which 
the  monarch  had  been  inspired  for  Father  Aquaviva  to 
prepare  and  facilitate  the  conversion  of  this  people. 

The  blessings  of  Heaven  descended  abundantly  upon 
the  efforts  of  the  missionary,  whose  name  seemed  to  give 
assurance  of  success.  In  a  few  years  the  number  of 
Christians  had  become  considerable.  Father  Geronimo 
resided  at  the  court,  but   the    Emperor  enjoyed  little  of 

*L.  Ranke — History  of  the  Papacy. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     301 

his  society.  lie  was  taken  up  by  the  duties  of  his  mis- 
sion, and  found  it  necessary  to  ask  for  a  reinforcement 
from  Goa.  In  1599,  he  solemnly  celebrated,  for  the  first 
time,  the  Feast  of  Christmas,  at  Lahore.  It  was  a  sight 
which  produced  wonderful  results  upon  souls.  Numbers 
of  Catechumens  went  in  procession  to  the  church,  robed 
in  white,  and  bearing  palms  in  their  hands.  They  were 
baptized  by  Father  Xavier,  and  then  conducted  to  the 
crib,  which  was  prepared  in  the  church,  and  which  there 
remained  exposed  during  twenty  days. 

The  Emperor,  though  enchanted  and  struck  by  all  the 
pomp  of  the  Catholic  worship,  persisted  in  his  infidelity. 
He  had  not  the  moral  courage  to  renounce  his  passions. 
Father  Xavier  had  placed  in  the  church  a  statue  of  the 
ever  Blessed  Virgin,  copied  from  the  Madonna  del  Popolo 
at  Rome.  The  Emperor  had  it  removed  to  his  palace,  in 
order  that  it  might  be  admired  by  his  wives.  He  read, 
with  deep  interest,  a  life  of  our  Saviour,  written  in  Persian, 
by  Father  Geronimo ;  but  his  admiration  remained  ever 
most  painfully  sterile  as  regarded  the  state  of  his  soul. 
However,  it  tended,  in  a  wonderful  degree,  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel  in  his  states,  and,  in  1610,  immediately 
after  his  death,  three  princes  of  his  house  solicited  bap- 
tism. When  they  were  sufiiciently  prepared.  Father  Ge- 
ronimo Xavier,  in  order  to  make  an  impression  on  the 
people,  as  much  as  through  respect  for  the  Imperial  family, 
went  to  receive  them  at  the  doors  of  the  church,  amid  the 
sound  of  trumpets  and  cymbals,  and  baptized  them  with 
great  solemnity.  Christianity  was  permanently  established 
in  the  Mogul  Empire. 

Tartary  had  also  her  missionaries  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  In  1G03,  Father  Zgoda,  who  was  then  at  Kame- 
uitz,  learned  that  an  ambassador  of  the  Great  Khan  of 
Tartary,  on  his  way  to  the  court  of  the  King  of  Poland, 
had   halted  in  that  city.     The  Jesuit  was  touched.     His 


302  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

apostolic  heart  leaped  for  joy.  He  would  go  and  see  the 
ambassador,  and  speak  to  him.  The  prospect  was  bright 
before  his  eyes.     The  envoy  received  him. 

"Would  it  be  possible,"  asked  the  Jesuit,  "for  me  to 
obtain  admittance  into  your  country,  at  no  matter  what 
price,  in  order  to  carry  thither  the  true  faith,  to  make 
known  to  the  people  the  true  God  of  heaven  and  earth, 
the  Creator  of  the  universe,  the  Redeemer  of  men?" 

"There  is  no  possibility,"  replied  the  Tartar,  "except 
by  means  of  a  iBrman  of  the  Sultan,  or  as  a  prisoner." 

The  Jesuit  was  satisfied.  He  wrote  to  the  K.in<i:  of  Po- 
land,  took  his  departure,  and  caused  himself  to  be  made 
prisoner  by  the  Tartars,  to  whom  he  spoke  of  Christ  cruci- 
fied. They  listened  to  him  in  astonishment  and  curiosity. 
And  when  the  ambassador  returned  from  Europe,  he,  in 
the  name  of  the  King  of  Poland,  asked  for  the  freedom  of 
Father  Zgoda  and  permission  to  preach  the  doctrine  which 
he  had  come  to  inculcate.  Both  favors  were  granted,  and 
soon  the  Apostle  of  Tartary  was  in  a  position  to  ofi"er  to  his 
Divine  Master  and  to  his  Church  a  new  race  of  Christians. 

In  Madura,  the  celebrated  Father  Nobili,  by  a  means  as 
strange  as  it  was  ingenious,  and  which  his  ardor  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls  could  alone  have  suggested,  succeeded  in 
enkindling  the  light  of  the  Gospel  before  the  eyes  of  the 
Infidels,  who  still  slumbered  in  the  shadow  of  death. 

Father  Nobili,  nephew  of  Father  Bellarmine,  and  whose 
family  was  related  to  those  of  the  Sovereign  Pontifis  Julius 
III  and  Marcellus  II,  as  also  to  the  Emperor  Otho  III, 
was  born  at  Montepulciano,  in  1577,  and  had  entered  the 
Society  of  Jesus  in  his  early  youth.  At  his  earnest  request, 
he  was  sent  on  foreign  missions,  being,  at  the  time,  only 
twenty -eight  years  of  age.  Several  Jesuits  of  Goa  had  al- 
ready penetrated  into  Hindostan  ;  but  their  life  of  poverty, 
their  love  for  the  Pariahs,  who  thirsted  for  their  holy  teach- 
ings, and  whose  souls  attached  themselves  with  transports 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO   AQUAVIVA.     303 

t,o  a  religion  which  excluded  no  caste,  had  caused  them  to 
be  despised  by  the  Brahmins  and  Rajahs.  All  their  exer- 
tions to  reach  the  privileged  castes  had  been  fruitless. 

Sent  to  Madura,  in  1605,  by  his  superiors,  Father  Nobili, 
well  knowing  the  experience  of  his  brothers,  thought  he 
ought  to  pursue  another  course.  He  was  aware  that  the 
penitent  Brahmins,  called  Santassi,  composed  the  caste 
which  was  the  most  esteemed  and  honored.  With  the  ap- 
proval of  his  superiors  and  of  the  Archbishop  of  Cranga- 
nor,  he  became  a  Saniassi.  He  assumed  the  costume  of 
the  penitent  Brahmins,  adopted  their  exterior  rule  of  life, 
and  spoke  their  mysterious  language.  He  constructed  for 
himself  a  small  hut,  covered  with  grass,  ate  neither  flesh 
nor  fish,  and  drank  no  liquors.  He  had  his  head  shaved, 
only  preserving  a  small  tuft  of  hair  on  the  crown.  His 
head-dress  consisted  of  a  cap  of  cylindrical  form,  made 
of  a  silken  material  of  the  color  of  fire,  and  surmounted 
by  a  long  vail,  which  hung  down  over  his  shoulders.  Long 
and  rich  ear-rings  extended  down  his  neck.  He  wore  a 
robe  of  muslin,  and  his  feet  were  protected  by  sandals,  with 
wooden  soles.  To  complete  the  illusion,  he  marked  his 
forehead  with  a  yellow  paste,  made  from  the  wood  of 
Sandanam.  Thus  disguised,  he  lived  in  solitude  in  his  lit- 
tle hut,  secretly  studying  the  language,  manners,  and  cus- 
toms of  the  pe'rsonages  he  was  desirous  of  imitating. 

Very  soon  he  passed  for  a  perfect  Saniassi,  and  the 
Brahmins  themselves,  wondering  at  such  a  rival,  sought 
his  presence,  and  questioned  him  as  to  himself,  his  country, 
and  his  family.  Father  Robert  solemnly  declared  that  he 
was  descended  from  an  illustrious  family.  His  oath  ob- 
tained for  him  admission  among  the  most  learned  and  holy 
Brahmins  of  the  East.  They  named  him  Tatouva-Podo- 
gar-Souami — A  master  in  the  ninety-six  qualities  of  the 
truly  wise. 

He  had,  for  a  long  time,  resisted  the  importunities  of 


30-4  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  curious,  and  refused  to  give  the  lessons  of  wisdom 
which  Rajah  and  Brahmin  desired  to  receive,  answering,  to 
both  the  one  and  the  other,  that  he  possessed  a  scien'ce 
by  which  he  could  do  without  men,  but  which  he  could 
not  communicate  to  all,  at  least  for  a  time.  He  at 
last  yielded,  however,  and  opened  a  school.  The  multi- 
tude flocked  around  him,  to  listen  to  his  teachings,  for 
which  they  thirsted,  and,  after  four  years  of  the  most  ad- 
mirable perseverance,  he  had  the  happiness  of  seeing  the 
Brahmins  prostrate  themselves  before  the  Cross  of  Jesus 
Christ.  He  had  reason  to  hope  that,  with  aid  from  above, 
it  would  be  possible  soon  to  establish  Christianity  in  these 
countries.  Even  the  King  was  disposed  to  embrace  it. 
But  the  Brahmins  having  perceived,  with  a  kind  of  dread, 
that  Father  Nobili  would  not  accept  any  presents,  and  that 
even  those  of  the  King  were  refused,  calculated  that  they 
themselves,  in  order  to  retain  the  respect  of  the  people, 
as  well  as  that  of  the  great,  would  be  reduced  to  the  same 
life  of  privations  led  by  the  great  Saniassi,  if  his  religion 
was  generally  adopted.  To  avoid  that  which  they  looked 
upon  as  their  personal  ruin,  they  assassinated  the  King, 
and  contented  themselves  with  admiring  the  wisdom  of 
the  Jesuit,  and  listening  to*  his  lessons,  without  desiring 
to  profit  by  them.  Father  Nobili,  nevertheless,  hoped 
that  grace  would  one  day  descend  into  their  souls,  for 
which  he  so  ardently  prayed. 

Father  Mathew  Bicci  had  been  in  China  for  several 
years,  in  the  city  of  Tchao-King,  in  the  province  of  Can- 
ton, where  he  had  purchased  a  house.  He  was  aware  that 
poverty  only  called  forth  contempt,  and  he  desired  to 
attract  esteem  and  respect;  he  had,  therefore,  done  for 
China  what  Father  Nobili  had  done  for  Madura.  He 
identified  himself  with  the  manners  and  customs  of  those 
whom  he  sought  to  convert.  Habited  in  the  costume  of 
the  learned,  wearing  on   his   head   their  conical   hat,  he 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER    CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     305 

ecemed  only  to  employ  himself  in  tli,e  human  sciences. 
He  spoke  of  nothing  but  natural  philosophy  and  astron- 
omy, and  proved  to  the  most  learned  Chinese  that,  not- 
•withstanding  their  pretensions,  they  had  still  much  to 
learn.  When  he  had  succeeded  in  gaining  for  himself  a 
reputation,  which  drew  around  him  many  admirers  and 
the  inquisitive  of  several  provinces,  he  ventured  to  speak 
of  the  Almighty  God,  Creator  of  the  world,  and  to  secure 
some  converts ;  but  it  would  have  been  compromising 
Christianity,  for  the  time  being,  and,  perhaps,  for  the 
future,  in  the  Celestial  Empire,  to  enter  openly  upon  the 
functions  of  the  apostolical  ministry,  without  being  author- 
ized to  do  so  by  the  Emperor.  The  difficulty  was  in  ob- 
taining access  to  his  court. 

Father  Ricci  requested  the  Portuguese  merchants,  who 
were  trading  at  Canton,  to  bring  him  costly  materials,  and 
instruments  of  natural  philosophy  and  astronomy,  and  all 
such  articles,  the  production  of  European  industry,  as 
might  prove  most  worthy  the  attention  of  the  Emperor 
Van-Lie.  In  the  mean  time,  the  learned  Jesuit,  who  was 
constantly  consulted  by  the  lettered  men,  spoke  of  God, 
and  of  the  homage  paid  him  by  the  learned  of  Europe ; 
and  he  was  listened  to  with  so  much  interest,  that  his 
followers  in  natural  philosophy,  mathematics,  and  astron- 
omy earnestly  begged  to  be  baptized.  Unfortunately, 
these  Catechumens,  carried  away  by  their  zeal,  overthrew 
the  idols  and  destroyed  them,  at  which  the  people  re- 
volted, and  wished  to  avenge  on  the  Jesuits  the  insult 
offered  to  their  gods.  The  Mandarins,  who  were  at  heart 
Christians,  employed  severe  measures  against  the  crimi- 
nals. The  Jesuits,  hastening  to  the  tribunal,  undertook 
to  defend  those  who  had  sought  their  lives.  This  sublime 
generosity  produced  the  most  marked  impression  on  the 
high  personages,  while  the  people  remained  insensible  to 
it.      A    few  days    after,   Fathers    Antonio   Almeida    and 


300  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Francisco  Petri  died  from  the  effects  of  the  ill-usage  they 
had  been  subjected  to  by  the  popular  fury,  and  Father 
Kicci  remained  alone  in  that  China  into  which  it  was  so 
difficult  to  gain  admission. 

At  length,  the  presents  intended  for  the  sovereign 
arrived.  Father  Ricci  vv^ent  to  Pekin ;  but,  before  enter- 
ing the  city,  he  needed  the  protection  of  a  IMandurin,  who 
wished  to  appropriate  the  presents  to  himself.  On  the 
refusal  of  the  Jesuit,  the  Mandarin  ordered  his  arrest,  and 
then  he  spoke,  at  Pekin,  of  a  stranger  whom  he  had 
arrested,  and  who  had  in  his  possession  a  clock  which 
struck  without  being  touched.  This  appeared  so  wonder- 
ful that  it  came  to  the  ears  of  the  Emperor,  and  he  com- 
manded that  the  stranger,  with  his  bell,  should  be  brought 
before  him.  Father  Ricci  was  conducted  to  court,  toward 
the  end  of  July,  IGOO,  and  received  by  Van-Lie  with 
marked  favor.  He  presented  the  Emperor  with  the  clock, 
which  he  had  intended  for  him,  and  for  which  a  suitable 
tower  was  built,  under  the  direction  of  the  Jesuit;  and 
the  Emperor  had  placed  in  his  apartment  pictures  repre- 
senting our  Saviour  and  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

This  moment  of  Divine  Providence  Father  Ricci  had 
awaited  patiently  for  seventeen  years,  without  ever  once 
desponding.  He  arrived  in  the  Chinese  Empire  in  1583, 
and  had  labored  incessantly,  without  any  apparent  suc- 
cess, but  with  a  perseverance  which  is  incomprehensible 
to  the  human  mind.  The  admirable  Jesuit  had  not  been 
deceived  in  his  calculations  for  the  glory  of  God.  His 
sojourn  at  the  court  led  to  the  supposition  that  he  en- 
joyed the  favor  of  approaching  the  person  of  the  sov- 
ereign, and  the  nobles  were  very  eager  to  court  him  and 
win  his  good-will.  His  name  was  an  authority  more 
respected  than  that  of  the  formidable  Mandarins.  The 
Father  took  advantage  of  this,  to  impart  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel  to   these   great  personages,   and,  erelong,  he  had 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.      307 

the  happiness  to  see  those  heads  humbly  bowed  before  the 
Cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  lie  was  soon  in  a  position  to  bap- 
tize a  great  many  Mandarins  and  men  of  letters,  and  the 
people,  influenced  by  this  example,  solicited  the  grace  of 
hearing  the  Christian  truths.  Several  Jesuits,  called  by 
Father  Ilicci,  preached  the  Gospel  in  the  provinces  with 
extraordinary  results.  In  1607,  a  novitiate  was  established 
at  Pekin,  under  the  direction  of  Father  Kicci,  who,  at  the 
same  time,  also  directed  the  missions  of  the  empire,  wrote 
many  works  in  the  Chinese  language,  and,  day  by  da}^,  kept 
an  account  of  the  events  he  saw  transpire  around  him. 
This  indefatigable  apostle  died,  at  Pekin,  in  1610.  The 
mourning  was  general  throughout  the  empire  at  this 
great  loss.  High  and  low  desired  to  see,  for  the  last  time, 
one  who  had  been  for  so  long  the  object  of  their  admira- 
tion, on  account  of  his  learning  and  his  virtues.  Crowds 
followed  him  to  his  last  resting-place,  and  the  Emperor 
had  a  Catholic  church  erected  over  the  spot  where  re- 
posed the  precious  remains  of  the  greatest  man  China 
had  ever  possessed,  and  whom  the  Pagans,  on  account  of 
his  wisdom,  had  compared  to  their  Confucius. 

XIII. 

Father  Organtini,  staff  in  hand,  his  breviary  under 
his  arm,  had  just  quitted  a  small  hamlet,  the  inhabitants 
of  which  were  all  Catholics,  and  was  returnino;  to  Nauaa- 

'  DO 

saki.  It  was  in  the  month  of  June.  The  apostle  was 
praying  for  the  entire  conversion  of  that  vast  Empire  of 
Japan  to  which  he  had  already  devoted  twenty-four  years 
of  his  life;  and  he  begged  especially  that  God  would 
touch  the  heart  of  the  Emperor,  and  open  his  eyes  to  the 
light  of  the  true  faith.  The  good  Father  was  within  a 
short  distance  of  Nangasaki,  when  he  was  struck  with 
astonishment  on  beholding  a  vessel  riding  at  anchor.  It 
was  a  Spanish  ship.  Did  it  bring  fresh  missionaries  ? 
28 


308  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Did  it  convey  letters  fiom  Rome,  Spain,  or  Goa?  But, 
behold !  they  land  passengers.  What !  a  Franciscan ! 
Two,  three,  four  Franciscans !  Is  this  a  dream,  or  an 
actual  fact?     What  can  all  this  mean? 

The  astonishment  of  the  good  Father  Organtini  was  the 
greater,  because  the  Jesuits  of  Japan,  having  asked  their 
Father-General  to  obtain  from  the  Pope  a  reinforcement 
of  missionaries  from  other  orders,  to  aid  them  in  that  vast 
region,  where  the  harvest  was  so  abundant,  the  Holy 
Father  had  refused  this  aid,  fearing  that  a  conflict  might 
arise  through  a  want  of  unity  of  action  in  the  labors  of 
the  mission.  He  had  formally  declared  himself  opposed 
to  this  proposition,  in  a  Bull,  dated  January  28,  1585; 
and  Philip  II,  then  King  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  had 
called  the  attention  of  all  the  governors  of  his  Indian 
possessions  to  this  Bull,  at  the  same  time  expressly  pro- 
hibiting any  missionaries,  other  than  members  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  from  leaving  his  colonies  for  the  pur- 
pose of  proceeding  to  Japan.  Father  Aquaviva  had  in- 
formed the  Fathers  of  Japan  of  the  opposition  he  had  met 
with  from  the  Sovereign  Pontifi"  and  the  King  of  Spain, 
as  well  as  of  the  measures  taken  by  both  one  and  the 
other.  It  was,  then,  natural  that  Father  Organtini  should 
be  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  arrival  of  four  Franciscans 
on  the  soil  of  Japan.  He  quickened  his  pace,  and  hast- 
ened to  the  place  of  landing. 

If  the  sight  of  the  Franciscans  was  a  cause  of  surprise 
to  Father  Organtini,  the  sight  of  a  Jesuit  did  not  cause 
less  astonishment  to  the  four  Franciscans.  Neither  those 
who  approached,  nor  he  who  awaited  them,  could  believe 
their  own  eyes.  It  was  time  that  all  should  be  ex- 
plained. At  length,  the  Spaniards  landed,  embraced  the 
Jesuit,  and  exclaimed  : 

"  There  are,  then,  Jesuits  in  Japan  ! " 

"We    number    one  hundred    and   twenty-six,"    replied 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     309 

Father  Organtini.      "  Did  you  think,  Reverend  Fathers, 
that  we   had  gone  away?" 

The  four  religious  stared  at  each  other,  and  then  turned 
toward  Don  Pedro  Gonzalvo  de  Carvajal,  a  Portuguese 
nobleman,  who  accompanied  them,  and  each  one  appeared 
to  ask  the  other  if  they  were  laboring  under  a  delusion. 
But  soon  the  mystery  was  cleared  up. 

The  rumor  had  been  spread  throughout  the  Philippines 
that  the  Jesuits  had  been  expelled  from  Japan,  and  that 
the  persecuted  Christians  were  left  without  spiritual  as- 
sistance. The  Spanish,  who  were  very  desirous  of  es- 
tablishing commercial  relations  with  Japan,  had  urged 
the  Governor  to  send  out  some  Franciscans  with  an  em- 
bassy, whose  ostensible  object  should  be  to  propose  a  treaty 
in  the  interest  of  commerce  between  the  two  countries. 
The  Jesuits  were  no  longer  in  Japan.  The  Bull  of  Greg- 
ory XIII,  and  the  decree  of  Philip  II,  were  considered 
annulled  by  the  fact  itself.  The  Governor  was  thus  led 
to  appoint  as  ambassador  for  Portugal,  Don  Pedro  Gon- 
zalvo de  Carvajal,  and  for  Spain,  Father  Juan  Batisto, 
with  three  other  Franciscans. 

The  Emperor  Taicosama  felt  himself  the  more  flattered 
by  the  overtures  of  the  Viceroy  of  the  Philippines,  as  the 
Japanese  interpreters,  Faranda  and  Faxeda,  put  upon  the 
letter  of  the  Viceroy  a  construction  which  was  not  ex- 
pressed by  the  writer.  They  made  him  say  that,  while 
awaiting  the  answer  of  the  King  of  Spain,  he  declared 
himself  a  vassal  and  tributary  of  Japan.  This  error,  or 
this  treachery,  secured  for  the  Franciscans  all  the  privi- 
leges that  could  be  wished  for  the  exercise  of  their  priestly 
functions.  But  as  soon  as  they  became  acquainted  with 
the  Japanese  language,  and  discovered  the  construction 
put  upon  the  letter  of  the  Viceroy,  they  entered  a  formal 
protest.  Faranda  and  Faxeda,  foreseeing  the  displeasure 
of  the  Emperor,  and  desiring  to  prevent  its  effects,  accused 


310  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  Franciscans  of  having  no  other  object  in  visiting 
Japan  than  to  increase  the  already  formidable  number  of 
Christians  in  the  empire.  They  caused  Taicosama  to  ap- 
prehend that  these  strangers,  in  concert  with  the  Jesuits, 
would  finally  dethrone  him,  to  the  benefit  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and,  probably,  in  favor  of  a  European.  Taicosama 
had  not  inherited  the  imperial  crown ;  a  revolution  had 
placed  it  on  his  brow.  It  was  easy  to  persuade  him  that 
a  revolution  might  deprive  him  of  its  possession.  He  be- 
came doubly  circumspect,  but  without  persecuting  the 
Christians,  whom  he  knew  to  be  more  faithful  and  sub- 
missive than  the  Pagans.  In  the  mean  time,  the  Fran- 
ciscans, happy  to  find  such  fervent  Christians,  asked  noth- 
ing better  than  to  be  allowed  to  remain  among  them,  and 
to  labor  with  all  their  zeal.  The  Jesuits  were  prohibited, 
and  Fathers  Organtini  and  Rodriguez  were  the  only  ones 
who  were  allowed  to  appear  in  the  habit  of  their  Order. 
Prudence  in  the  exercise  of  the  ministry  was  rigorously 
enjoined.  The  experience  of  the  Fathers  ought  to  have 
served  as  a  caution  to  the  Franciscans,  but  the  latter,  lit- 
tle accustomed  to  moderating  their  zeal,  and  fortified  by 
their  diplomatic  title,  acted  in  Japan  as  though  they  were 
in  the  Philippines.  The  Bonzes  remarked  this,  and  prom- 
ised themselves  revenge. 

In  the  commencement  of  February,  1596,  several  Jes- 
uits arrived  in  Japan  to  aid  their  brothers  in  that  apostle- 
ship,  ever  dangerous,  but  always  blessed.  Among  these 
new  arrivals  were  Fathers  Jerome  de  AnGjelis  and  Charles 
Spinola,  son  of  the  Count  Octavio.  A  few  months  after- 
ward. Father  Martinez,  Bishop  of  Japan,  came  to  take 
possession  of  his  See,  and  presented  himself  to  the  Em- 
peror, who  expressed  to  him  his  great  satisfaction  at  meet- 
ing the  High-priest  of  the  Christians.  The  prelate,  having 
been  thus  received  by  the  Prince,  was  at  liberty  to  pro- 
ceed freely  to  any  part  of  his  states. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     311 

In  the  month  of  July,  a  galleon*  from  Marseilles  was 
wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Niphoii.  The  law  of  the  coun- 
try awarded  to  the  sovereign  the  property  of  those  who 
were  wrecked.  The  cargo  was  seized.  Father  Gomez 
gave  shelter  to  the  destitute  sailors.  The  sick  were  re- 
ceived at  the  college  of  Nangasaki,  and  the  Bishop  un- 
dertook to  maintain  and  take  care  of  the  others,  until 
such  time  as  a  ship  was  built,  so  that  they  could  again 
put  to  sea.  One  of  the  Emperor's  courtiers  had  discov- 
ered on  board  some  charts,  and  pointing  them  out  to  the 
pilot,  inquired  to  .whom  all  those  empires  and  kingdoms 
belonged.  The  pilot,  a  Spaniard,  whether  through  na- 
tional pride,  or  for  mere  sport,  replied,  simply  and  seri- 
ously, 

"  To  my  sovereign  !  " 

"And  how  has  he  made  himself  master  of  so  many 
countries  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America?" 

"  By  force  of  arms  and  by  religion.  Our  priests  go 
first,  and  prepare  the  way  by  converting  the  people,  and 
when  Christianity  predominates,  on  our  arrival  the  con- 
quest is  but  mere  child's  play." 

This  reply  was  quickly  reported  to  the  Emperor,  who 
directed  that  all  the  European  Bonzes  should  be  forth- 
with seized,  at  Ozaca  and  Meaco.  Six  Franciscans,  three 
Jesuits,  Fathers  Paul  Miki,  John  Soan  de  Gotto,  and 
James  Kisai,  as  well  as  ten  Japanese  Christians,  were  im- 
prisoned,  and  Taicosama  passed  upon  them  the  following 
sentence  of  death : 

"  Whereas,  these  men,  coming  here  from  the  Philippines,  under 
the  name  of  ambassadors,  have,  against  our  orders,  preached  the 
Christian  faith,  built  churches,  and  abused  our  bounty,  we  order 
that  they  be  executed,  together  with  the  Japanese  who  have  em- 
braced their  religion.  They  shall  be  crucified  at  Nangasaki;  and 
we  again  prohibit  this  faith,  wishing  that  all  should  be  aware  of 

*  A  sort  of  Spanish  mau-of-war. — Tr. 
28* 


312  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

it.     Whoever  infringes  this,  our  prohibition,  shall,  together  with 
his  family,  sufiFer  the'penaltj^  of  death. 
"The  20th  of  the  11th  Moon." 

When  the  sentence  was  about  to  be  executed,  on  the 
5th  of  February,  1597,  Father  Paul  Miki,  being  unable 
to  restrain  his  excessive  joy,  threw  himself  into  the  arms 
of  each  of  the  Franciscans,  and  thanked  them,  with  an 
overflowing  heart,  for  the  happiness  for  which  he  was  in- 
debted to  them.  To  die  the  same  death  as  our  Saviour, 
Jesus,  was,  for  these  men,  an  unhoped-for  glory,  which 
filled  them  with  k  holy  gladness,  an  ineffable  consolation. 
The  holy  martyrs  welcomed  their  fate  with  so  much  joy, 
that  the  Emperor  was  constrained  to  acknowledge  that  he 
had  been  mistaken  in  his  calculations. 

A  few  days  after  this  execution.  Father  Louis  Froez  died 
of  old  age  at  Nangasaki,  and  Taicosama  issued  a  decree 
of  banishment  against  the  missionaries.  Death  caused 
them  such  great  happiness,  that  the  Emperor  felt  that  he 
ought  to  inflict  another  sort  of  punishment.  It  was  at 
this  juncture  that  Father  Valignani  presented  himself, 
with  nine  other  Jesuits,  in  company  with  Father  Cer- 
queyra,  coadjutor  of  the  Bishop  of  Japan.  Father  Val- 
ignani possessed  the  love  and  respect  of  all  the  Japanese, 
and  had  a  real  influence  over  Taicosama.  This  prince 
unconsciously  submitted  to  that  immense  power  of  virtue 
designated  by  the  unreflecting  the  inexplicahle  influence 
of  the  Jesuits.  He  saw  but  three  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
society,  and  those  but  rarely,  they  being  the  only  ones 
w^ho  were  permitted  to  move  freely  in  his  states  without 
disguise  ;  and  he  had  such  love  for  all  three  as  to  be  unable 
to  resist  them.  The  presence  of  Father  Valignani  calmed 
the  anger  of  the  Pagan  monarch.  The  decree  was  an- 
nulled for  the  time  being. 

In  the  following  year,  1598,  the  prelate  Martinez,  leav- 
ing the  direction  of  affairs  to  his  coadjutor,  set   out  for 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.    313 

Goa,  and  died  on  the  journey.  Father  Cerqueyra  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  See  of  Japan.  A  few  moiiths  after, 
on  the  15th  of  September,  the  Emperor  died,  without 
having  had  his  eyes  opened  to  the  light  of  the  true  faith, 
which  was  still  held  up  to  him  on  his  death-bed.  Fathers 
Rodriguez  and  Organtitii  tried,  but  in  vain,  to  save  the 
persecutor  of  the  missionaries.  Up  to  the  last  moment, 
they  urged  him  with  the  most  persevering  charity,  and 
they  had  the  sorrow  to  see  him  expire  in  his  deplorable 
blindness.  The  inheritor  of  the  throne  being  only  six 
years  of  age,  the  regency  was  confided  to  Daifoo,  one 
of  the  kings  of  Japan,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Daifoo- 
sama,  and  who,  desiring  to  make  partisans  among  the 
Christian  nobles,  followed  the  counsels  of  the  Jesuits  for 
his  own  ends,  and  declared  himself  the  protector  of  Chris- 
tianity. During  this  time  the  King  of  Firando  proclaimed 
war  against  the  Christians,  who  flocked  to  Nangasaki  for 
refuge,  where  Father  Valignani  announced  that  he  would 
receive  and  protect  them  to  the  best  of  his  power.  Those 
who  did  not  fly,  took  up  arms  against  their  oppressor. 
The  Jesuits  arrested  this  commencement  of  insurrection 
by  teaching  their  neophytes  that  it  is  not  by  the  sword 
that  the  crown  of  martyrdom  is  to  be  won,  unless  a  holy 
war  imposed  the  duty  of  securing  it  by  fighting.  The 
outbreak  being  thus  appeased  by  the  simple  word  of  the 
Jesuits,  convinced  the  King  of  Firando  of  all  the  power 
the  Christian  religion  possessed  over  those  hearts  which  own 
its  sway.  He  felt  that  persecution  would  be  futile  in  fur- 
thering his  views,  so  Ion 2:  as  the  Jesuits  were  in  the  em- 
pire,  and  he  deferred  it  to  a  more  favorable  occasion. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  progress  of  Christianity  increased 
with  marvellous  rapidity.  In  the  single  year  1599  the  con- 
verts numbered  seventy  thousand,  and  often  Father  Bueza, 
like  the  first  Apostle  of  Japan,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  was 
compelled  to  have  his  arms  supported,  in  order  that  he 


314  HISTORY    OP    THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

might  continue  the  administration  of  the  sacrament  of  re- 
generation. 

Daifoosama  had  taken  possession  of  the  imperial  crown, 
on  his  own  account,  and,  ever  desirous  of  winning  the  good 
will  of  the  Christians,  he  permitted  them  to  build  churches 
even  in  his  chief  city.  All  the  establishments  founded  by 
the  Jesuits  prospered  beyond  expectation.  The  city  of 
Nangasaki  had  nine  parishes,  ministered  to  by  native 
priests,  from  the  seminary  of  the  Jesuits  at  Facinara,  in 
the  kingdom  of  Arima.  An  academy  was  established  at 
Nangasaki,  as  also  a  foundling  hospital.  Father  Organtini 
had  founded  this  house  for  the  reception  of  Pagan  chil- 
dren, whose  parents,  being  without  the  means  of  support- 
ing them,  would  have  drowned  or  suffocated  their  offspring. 
The  good  Father  purchased  them  from  their  unnatural 
guardians,  confided  them  to  the  care  of  Christian  nurses, 
and  had  them  educated  in  the  faith.  lie  was  the  St.  Vin- 
cent de  Paul  of  Japan.  The  lepers  were  also  objects  of 
his  tender  solicitude.  He  collected  them,  tended  them, 
and  procured  them  all  the  alleviation  that  was  in  his  power. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1605,  the  Spaniards,  ever  de- 
sirous of  opening  negotiations  with  the  Japanese,  again 
landed  at  Nangasaki,  with  some  Franciscans.  Daifoosama 
desired  to  see  them,  interrogated  them,  and  found  that  in 
that  very  year  the  metropolis  had  sent  to  the  Philippines 
a  great  number  of  soldiers  and  cargoes  of  arms,  and  he 
asked  the  meaning  of  these  expeditions. 

"It  is  to  subjugate  the  Moluccas,"  was  the  answ^er  he 
received. 

This  struck  him  like  a  thunderbolt.  He  recalled  the 
words  of  the  Spaniard  who  had  said,  "  When  Christianity 
is  established,  conquest  is  for  us  but  child's  play."  He 
forthwith  ordered  the  Governor  of  Nangasaki  to  send  all 
the  Spaniards  away  from  the  coast.  Father  Valignani,  who 
was  then  on  his  death-bed  at  Meaco,  hearing  this  sad  news, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     315 

implored  the  Emperor  to  have  more  confidence  in  the 
words  of  the  Jesuit  than  in  his  own  fears,  and  he  addressed 
him  a  last  prayer  to  put  a  stop  to  these  measures  decreed 
against  the  Christians.  The  Emperor  was  persuaded  ;  and 
on  the  20th  of  January,  160(J,  the  holy  Jesuit  went  to  re- 
ceive the  reward  of  his  excellent  life  and  glorious  labors. 
He  was  sixty-nine  years  of  age.  Three  years  after,  on  the 
7th  of  April,  1609,  Father  Organtini  also  departed  this 
life,  to  the  great  sorrow  of  all  the  colonies  to  whom  he 
had  preached  the  Gospel. 

Protestants  saw  from  afar  the  conquests  of  the  Church 
in  Japan,  through  the  ministry  of  the  Jesuits.  For  some 
time,  the  question  had  suggested  itself  to  them  whether, 
by  any  possibility,  they  could  destroy  the  influence  of  these 
indefatigable  apostles,  who  took  possession  of  all  parts  of 
the  world  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  See.  After  several 
years  of  research,  being  unable  to  find  any  better  weapon 
than  the  one  they  were  in  the  habit  of  wielding,  they  de- 
cided upon  employing  it  again.  To  do  so,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  be  at  the  scene  of  action,  and  accordingly  they 
set  out. 

In  1612,  a  Mexican  vessel  dropped  anchor  in  the  waters 
of  Nangasaki.  An  embassy  had  gone  to  propose  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  Mexico. 
Daifoosama  approached  the  shore,  and  asked  of  the  cap- 
tain of  the  vessel  the  meaning  of  the  soundings  which 
he  had  just  taken.  The  captain  was  an  Englishman,  and 
took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  injure,  at  one  and 
the  same  time,  both  the  religion  and  the  trade  of  the 
Portuguese  and  Spanish. 

"  Sounding  a  port,"  replied  the  Englishman,  "  is  con- 
sidered in  Europe  as  an  act  of  hostility.  The  Spaniards 
are  determined  to  take  possession  of  Japan.  They  are 
an  insatiable  people.  They  desire  to  rule  the  entire 
world ;   hence,  they  commence    by  sending  the   Jesuits, 


316  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

■who  are  their  spies,  and  who  prepare  the  way  for  thera. 
The  Jesuits,  to  this  end,  teach  a  false  religion,  and,  for 
this  reason,  in  Europe,  they  have  been  expelled  from 
England,  Germany,  Poland,  and  Holland.  All  the  mon- 
archs  and  states  reject  them  as  traitors." 

This  was  more  than  enough  to  irritate  the  susceptibility 
of  the  usurper.  Fourteen  of  the  most  distinguished  fami- 
lies immediately  received  orders  to  choose  between  exile  or 
recantation.  They  preferred  the  former.  The  son  of  the 
King  of  Arima,  like  his  brother,  was  a  Christian.  Daifoo- 
sama  proposed  to  invest  him  with  the  sovereignty  of  the 
kingdom,  if  he  would  apostatize,  and  promised  to  assist  him 
in  persecuting  the  Christians.  Ambition  arose  in  Michael's 
heart.  He  abjured  Christianity,  had  his  father  assassinated, 
tore  down  the  crosses,  destroyed  the  churches,  and  ordered 
the  Jesuits  to  leave  his  states.  Some  obeyed ;  others  con- 
cealed themselves,  in  order  to  sustain  the  faith  of  the  con- 
verts. Michael  had  several  brothers,  the  eldest  of  whom 
was  not  yet  eight  years  old.  He  ordered  them  to  be  put 
to  death,  and  these  little  angels,  hearing  of  the  happiness 
which  awaited  them,  were  so  far  inspired  as  to  prepare 
themselves  for  it  by  forty  days'  fasting  and  prayer. 

The  English  and  the  Dutch,  on  the  other  hand,  per- 
suaded the  Emperor  that  the  trade  of  Japan  would  not  be 
impaired  by  sending  away  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish, 
but  that,  on  the  contrary,  his  country  had  every  thing  to 
gain  by  treating  only  with  the  English  and  the  Dutch, 
whose  ambition  was  limited  to  trade,  without  meddling  in 
religion,  seeing  that  they  respected  all,  and  were  only  ene- 
mies to  that  of  the  Jesuits.  These  counsels  of  Protest- 
antism produced  their  fruits. 

The  year  following,  1G13,  the  persecution  became  fright- 
ful, and,  admirable  to  relate,  it  prodigiously  augmented  the 
number  of  neophytes.  Crowds  accompanied  to  the  stake 
or  the  gibbet  the  martyrs  condemned  to  death,  and  the 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER   CLAUDIO   AQUAVIVA.     317 

sight  of  these  daily  executions  seemed  to  produce  additionol 
Christians,  and  make  fresh  martyrs.  Some  solicited  the 
favor  of  baptism,  others  the  glory  of  the  scaffold.  All 
those  who  declared  themselves  Christians  were  arraigned 
and  condemned.  In  a  few  days,  several  thousand  converts 
asked  to  be  enrolled,  and  a  host  of  others  aspired  to  the 
same  honor  ;  for  the  imperial  decree  proclaimed  that  such 
as  did  not  denounce  themselves,  would  be  considered  Pa- 
gans, and  not  molested.  The  Governor  of  Meaco,  terri- 
fied at  the  number  of  victims  to  be  executed,  reduced  it 
to  seventeen  hundred.  Of  the  fifteen  Jesuits  residing  in 
that  city,  only  six  were  inscribed ;  the  others  had  to  escape 
death,  in  order  to  sustain  and  encourage  their  flock. 

The  Christians  had  bound  themselves  by  an  oath,  signed 
with  their  blood,  to  oppose,  with  all  their  strength,  the  ban- 
ishment of  the  Jesuits.  The  Fathers,  learning  this,  en- 
deavored, but  in  vain,  to  have  it  annulled.  The  neophytes 
would  never  consent  to  the  possibility  of  such  a  separation. 
This  compact  was  discovered,  and  reported  to  the  Emperor's 
chief  minister.  Immediately,  one  hundred  and  seventeen 
Jesuits,  and  twenty-seven  Spanish  religious,  Franciscans, 
Augustinians,  and  Dominicans,  as  also  seven  native  priests, 
were  conducted  to  the  port  of  Nangasaki,  and  dispatched, 
some  to  Macao,  others  to  the  Philippines.  Ucondono, 
King  of  Tomba,  and  several  noble  families  shared  their 
exile.  Some  died  during  the  voyage,  being  unable  to  en- 
dure the  cruel  treatment  they  received;  others  expired 
on  their  arrival.  King  Ucondono  was  among  the  latter. 
Twenty-six  Jesuits,  and  a  few  missionaries  of  other  orders, 
still  remained  for  the  numerous  Christians  of  Japan,  but 
their  life  was  one  of  prolonged  suffering. 

XIV. 

Father  Oviedo,  Patriarch  of  Ethiopia,  died  in  1577, 
leaving  his  cherished  flock  without  a  pastor;  for  the  Jes- 


318  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

uits  wlio  had  shared  his  labors  and  his  captivity  had 
preceded  him  in  their  departure  from  this  world.  Sev- 
eral Fathers  of  Goa  had  attempted  to  join  their  captive 
brothers,  and  always  met  their  death  in  the  undertaking. 
Fathers  Peter  Paez  and  Melchior  de  Sylva,  disguised  in 
the  Armenian  costume,  succeeded,  at  length,  in  reaching 
their  persecuted  Christians,  who  were  without  pastors,  to 
assist  and  sustain  them  in  the  sorrowful  path  in  which 
they  had  for  so  long  been  journeying.  The  presence  of 
a  Jesuit  v\ras  a  great  consolation  for  all  those  souls.  After 
having  blessed  and  cheered  them,  the  heroic  Father  Paez, 
bravino;  the  Turkish  cimeters  which  <»;uarded  the  throne, 
dared  to  present  himself  to  the  Emperor.  This  cour- 
ageous action  delighted  the  prince,  who  offered  the  Jes- 
uit a  seat  beside  his  throne,  listened  willingly  to  the 
words  of  the  Gospel — did  not  accept  it,  indeed,  for  him- 
self, but  permitted  it  to  be  preached  and  propagated 
in  his  empire.  This  important  news  was  immediately 
sent  to  Goa,  and  Fathers  Louis  Azevedo,  x\nthony  de 
Angelis,  and  several  others,  hastened  to  share  the  apos- 
tleship  of  their  brothers. 

In  1610,  the  principal  cities  of  Eth-lopia  witnessed  the 
establishment  of  colleges  and  religious  houses  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus.  Soon  afterward,  the  Emperor  was  de- 
throned by  a  popular  revolution.  His  successor  declared 
himself  the  protector  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  wrote 
to  the  Pope.  Sela-Christos,  his  brother,  some  members 
of  his  family,  and  several  personages  of  the  court,  shortly 
afterward,  solicited  baptism.  In  1615,  the  Ethiopian  mis- 
sion was  in  full  activity. 

Thus  the  Jesuits  continued  to  live  in  alternate  success 
and  adversity — to-day,  favors;  to-morrow,  martyrdom — 
and  vocations  were  but  the  more  numerous.  The  society 
sent  apostles  and  martyrs  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  In 
Africa,  they  were    still    in  Guinea,  where  they  had  sent 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDiO  AQUAVIVA.     319 

missionaries  in  1604,  after  having  established  Christianity 
in  Anuohi.  Father  Gonsalvo  Silveira  had  been  devoured 
by  the  cannibals  of  Monomotapa.  Several  other  Jesuits 
had  asked  for  and  solicited  that  dangerous  post.  All  had 
successively  met  with  the  same  fate,  and  their  brethren 
were  ambitious  of  following  them,  when  Providence,  at 
length,  blessed  that  ungrateful  country,  which  had  been 
fertilized  by  the  blood  of  so  many  heroes. 

In  1608,  the  rightful  King  was  about  to  be  dethroned 
by  a  revolt  among  his  subjects.  The  Portuguese  came 
to  his  assistance,  and  reestablished  his  authority.  In 
gratitude  for  this  service,  the  King  requested  that  Jes- 
uits might  be  sent  out,  to  whom  he  promised  his  protec- 
tion. The  Jesuits  hastened  thither,  but  the  vessel  in 
which  they  had  embarked  was  wrecked  upon  a  sand-bank. 
Some  of  the  passengers  succeeded  in  making  the  shore; 
the  others  perished,  A  Caffre  remained  on  deck,  being 
ill,  and  unable  to  flee  the  inevitable  death  that  awaited 
him.  Father  Paul  Alexis  saw  his  critical  position,  seized 
the  dying  man,  placed  him  on  his  shoulders,  and  carried 
him  ashore,  across  the  rugged  rocks,  which  tore  his  limbs 
and  caused  the  blood  to  issue  from  his  wounds.  But,  of 
what  consequence  to  him  were  his  own  sufferings?  He  had 
saved  the  Caffre,  and  was  happy.  His  charity  was  satis- 
fied. Two  days  later.  Father  Alexis,  whose  heroic  de- 
votedness  had  exhausted  his  strength,  expired  at  Zimbao, 
leaving  an  example  of  sublime  charity,  which  was  to  facil- 
itate the  apostleship  of  his  brothers,  by  the  impression  it 
bad  made  on  the  Pagans  and  Mussulmans. 

In  the  two  Americas,  Christianity  and  civilization  were 
promulgated  in  every  direction  by  the  ministry  of  the 
Jesuits.  Their  colleges  and  houses  were  multiplied,  the 
most  remote  peoples  heard  them  and  received  the  Gospel, 
and  the  children,  more  easily  won,  became  their  cate- 
chists  and  missionaries.  In  1604,  Christianity  had  so  ex- 
29 


320  HISTORY    OP    THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tended  itself  in  Mexico  that  the  Jesuits,  finding  them- 
selves insufl&cient  for  the  cultivation  of  that  fertile  country, 
had  to  call  to  their  aid  the  Brothers  of  St.  John-of-God. 

In  1608,  the  plague  breaking  out  in  Mexico,  the  Fathers 
induced  the  inhabitants  to  make  a  vow  to  Our  Lady  of 
Loretto,  and,  this  course  having  been  taken,  the  scourge 
immediately  disappeared.  The  Mexicans,  faithful  to  their 
promise,  formed  an  image  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  with  the 
most  beautiful  feathers  of  the  rarest  birds,  and  sent  it  to 
Loretto. 

Father  Anthony  Lopez  died  in  Peru  in  1590,  having 
been  poisoned  by  the  savages.  Father  Miguel  Urrea  ex- 
pired a  few  days  after,  under  the  axe  of  the  Infidels,  and 
Father  Barsena  continued  to  work  in  the  mission,  while 
awaiting  his  turn,  and  died  from  exhaustion.  In  1604, 
there  were  fifty-six  Jesuits,  full  of  ardor  and  burning 
with  zeal,  in  that  portion  of  the  New  World,  where  they 
were  as  sure  of  meeting  a  death  as  glorious  before  God  as 
it  would  be  ignored  by  men.  At  Cusco,  they  were  aston- 
ished at  the  number  of  the  blind  whom  they  there  met. 
These  were  the  first  whom  they  converted,  and,  when  they 
became  sufiiciently  instructed,  they  sent  them  to  commu- 
nicate it  to  the  workmen  in  their  shops,  to  their  families 
and  friends.  The  deaf  and  dumb  were  as  numerous  as 
the  blind.  The  Jesuits  instructed  these  by  signs,  and 
made  them  the  catechists  of  those  who  were  afilicted  with 
this  double  infirmity.  Soon  the  progress  of  the  Gospel 
rendered  necessary  the  division  of  Peru  into  three  vice- 
provinces — Chili,  Tucuman,  and  Paraguay. 

The  Araucanians,  in  Chili,  had  conceived  a  hatred  for 
the  Spanish  nation.  These  savages,  accustomed  to  their 
freedom,  were  irritated  by  the  state  of  slavery  to  which 
they  were  reduced.  Their  natural  pride  revolted  at  the 
sight  of  these  conquerors,  who,  not  content  with  subjugat- 
ing them  by  war,  and  possessing  themselves  of  their  coun- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.  321 

try  by  right  of  conquest,  seized  also  their  persons  and  sold 
them  to  the  highest  bidder.  During  a  general  revolt, 
in  1593,  the  Araucanians  had  rushed  upon  the  Governor, 
Don  31artino.de  Loyola,  and  assassinated  him.  The  holy 
founder  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  from  the  pinnacle  of  his 
immortal  glory,  saw  the  crime  committed  on  his  grand- 
nephew.  No  doubt  he  desired,  in  his  heavenly  abode,  to 
avenge  himself,  as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  do  on  earth, 
and  prayed  for  the  murderers  of  Don  Martino  de  Loyola; 
for,  in  the  same  year,  the  children  of  8t.  Ignatius  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  access  to  Araucania,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Father  Valdivia.  The  insurrection  still  raged. 
Father  Martino  d'Aranda  courageously  made  his  appear- 
ance in  the  midst  of  the  rebellious  people,  whom  he  ad- 
dressed, announcing  to  them  a  religion  which  emancipates 
all  from  the  most  dreadful  servitudes,  because  it  is  eternal. 
At  the  same  time,  he  promised  them  that  the  King  of 
Spain  would  restore  to  liberty  those  among  the  Arauca- 
nians who  would  accept,  with  reverence,  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  render  themselves  worthy  the  grace  of 
baptism.  The  revolt  immediately  subsided.  The  Jesuits 
were  listened  to,  the  word  of  God  fructified  in  the  souls 
of  the  people,  and  Father  Valdivia  took  his  departure  for 
Spain.  He  begged  of  the  King  the  independence  of  this 
people,  to  whom  he  had  promised  freedom,  in  the  name 
of  their  sovereign.  The  request  was  complied  with  by 
the  King.  The  Jesuit  returned  to  Chili  in  triumph,  and 
saw  the  Araucanians  prostrate  themselves  at  his  feet  to 
express  their  gratitude.  This  people  no  longer  saw  any 
thing  but  their  deliverers  in  the  apostles,  who  had  intro- 
duced to  them  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  all  most 
earnestly  asked  the  grace  of  baptism.  But  Chili  was  also 
to  have  its  martyrs. 

The  chief  of  a  neighboring  people,  hearing  that  three 
women  had  abandoned  the  tribe  to  embrace  Christianity, 


322  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

vowed  to  be  avenged.  It  was  the  Jesuits  whom  he  de- 
termined to  sacrifice  to  his  furj.  He  was  one  day  told 
that  the  Fathers  were  going  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  the 
interior.  Agananon,  as  this  chief  was  named,  followed 
them  at  a  distance,  accompanied  by  two  hundred  mounted 
men,  and  when  he  perceived  them  in  the  midst  of  the 
savages,  to  whom  they  were  making  known  the  truths  of 
Christianity,  he  suddenly  rushed  upon  them,  and,  throwing 
them  to  the  ground,  put  them  to  death.  They  were  Fathers 
D'Aranda  and  Vecchi,  and  the  coadjutor,  Brother  Diego 
Montalban. 

The  Jesuits  but  labored  the  more  actively  to  procure 
liberty  for  the  tribes  of  Chili,  whom  they  were  converting. 
The  King  of  Spain  ratified  all  their  engagements  in  this 
respect,  and  every  slave  whom  the  Spaniards  gave  to  their 
college  of  St.  James  was  freed  by  them.  The  emanci- 
pationists of  our  century  have  not  the  merit  of  the  ini- 
tiative— the  Anglicans  wrongfully  set  up  a  claim  to  it — 
it  belongs  to  the  Society  of  Jesus.  After  the  death  of 
Father  Joseph  Anchieta,  whose  zeal  and  charity  for  the 
slaves  was  so  touching,  the  King  of  Spain,  wishing  to 
render  to  his  venerated  memory  a  homage  worthy  of  it, 
forbade  his  subjects  to  enslave  the  Brazilians.  The  Apos- 
tle of  Brazil  had  begged  liberty  for  the  peoples  whom  he 
converted,  and  this  liberty  was  to  be  respected  in  remem- 
brance of  the  holy  missionary. 

In  1615,  the  Society  of  Jesus  numbered  fifty-six  mem- 
bers at  Bahia,  sixty-two  at  Bio  Janeiro  and  at  Pernambuco, 
and  forty  in  the  neighboring  towns,  destined  to  aid  their 
brothers  in  the  missions  of  country  places,  or  in  the  colleges, 
which,  by  the  increasing  number  of  students,  demanded 
an  additional  number  of  professors. 

Father  Claudio  Aquaviva,  who,  for  thirty  years,  had 
governed  the  Society  of  Jesus  with  so  much  prudence  and 
wisdom,  was  exhausted  by  the  labors  and  fatigues  of  this 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  CLAUDIO  AQUAVIVA.     ii'Sd 

immense  charge  much  more  than  by  his  advanced  age. 
On  the  26th  of  January,  1615,  he  was  attacked  by  a  disease 
which  carried  him  off  on  the  31st  of  the  same  month,  full 
of  virtues  and  of  merit.  He  left  behind  him  the  sincere 
regret  of  all  the  princes,  who  had  known  how  to  appre- 
ciate him,  and  of  all  the  Romans,  who  had  always  admired 
him. 

At  the  Pontifical  and  foreign  courts,  every  one  ex- 
claimed, "The  world  and  the  Society  of  Jesus  have  lost 
a  great  man  !  " 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  the  Society  numbered  thir- 
teen thousand  members  and  five  hundred  and  fifty  houses, 
divided  into  thirty-three  provinces. 

29* 


32-t  HISTORY    OF   THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 


igcncralsMiJ  of  fatlrer  pittia  yittcllcsc^i, 

SIXTH   GENERAL. 
1615  —  1G45. 

I. 

On  the  15th  of  November,  1615,  Father  Mutio  Vittel- 
leschi,  born  at  Rome,  fifty  years  of  age,  and  Assistant  of 
Italy,  was  elected  Sixth  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

For  three  years,  the  heretics  and  the  enemies  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  had  endeavored  to  propagate  an  odious 
anon^'mous  pamphlet,  in  which  was  set  forth  a  fable  as 
ridiculous  as  the  pamphlet  itself  was  absurd.  This  in- 
famous libel,  the  authorship  of  which  no  one  had  the  hardi- 
hood to  acknowledge,  was  printed  at  Cracow,  and  entitled 
Monita  Secreta.  Peter  Tylicki,  Bishop  of  Cracow,  pro- 
ceeded judicially  against  Jerome  Zaorowski,  curate  of 
Gozdziec,  to  whom  public  rumor  attributed  the  author- 
ship. The  Monita  Secreta  were  reputed  to  be  the  secret  in 
structions  of  the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  to  his 
religious.  Their  end  was  the  augmentation  of  the  power, 
influence,  and  riches  of  the  society  by  means  the  most 
criminal.  The  hypothesis  was  so  grossly  absurd,  that  it 
could  not  find  a  sufficient  number  of  believers.  It  was  re- 
served for  the  following  century  to  evince  so  much  credulity 
as  to  place  reliance  on  these  monstrosities.  However,  the 
Cono-reo-ation  of  Cardinals,  unwilling  to  allow  this  odious 
calumny  to  hang  over  the  Society  of  Jesus,  condemned 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCHI.     325 

the  31onita  Secreta  on   the   10th  of  December,   IGIG,   as 
fahelij  attilbuted  to  the  Jesuits. 

This  ignoble  slander,  republished  less  than  a  year  ago, 
was  thus  refuted  by  T  Ami  de  la  Religio7i,  of  the  2d  of 
August,  1861  : 

There  has  just  been  reprinted  in  Paris,  and  distributed  through- 
out France,  a  pamphlet,  which  has  already  been  twice  before  the 
world,  and  which,  for  many  readers,  seems  still  to  possess  all  the 
attractions  of  novelty.  3Ionita  Secreta  Societatis  Jesu  (Secret  In- 
structions of  the  Jesuits) — such  is  the  title. 

As  to  the  book  itself,  here  is,  in  two  words,  its  idea :  Studying 
to  imitate,  in  its  very  style,  the  phraseology  chiefly  employed  in 
the  Constitutions  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  author  of  this  im- 
posture has  been  able  to  unite,  with  the  most  perfidious  cun- 
ning, in  seventeen  successive  chapters,  all  the  counsels,  all  the 
imaginable  combinations  of  hypocrisy,  craft,  cupidity,  ambition, 
treachery,  and  deceit — the  whole  most  skilfully  concealed  under 
the  exterior  decorum  of  the  most  irreproachable  life  of  a  re- 
ligious. 

Tken  it  assumes  that  these  instructions  were  discovered  in 
manuscript  in  the  archives  of  the  Jesuits,  and,  consequently,  de- 
rive their  authorship  from  them,  and  form  the  rule  of  conduct  for 
the  superiors  and  the  initiated  of  the  Order. 

As  for  the  rest,  saving  the  size  of  the  book,  and  some  additional 
falsehoods,  there  is  nothing  new  in  the  edition  of  1861 — not  even 
the  preliminary  introduction.  Thei^e  was  no  help  for  this.  What 
could  they  put  in  place  of  the  ingenious  recital  of  the  discovery 
of  the  Monita  Secreta  in  the  archives  of  the  Jesuits?  It  was  such 
a  happy  invention! 

But,  by  the  side  of  the  inventions  of  malevolence,  history  hap- 
pily furnishes  some  information  on  the  Monita  Secreta  of  a  certain 
value.  Nothing  is  said  of  this  in  the  introduction.  It  may  not, 
perhaps,  be  useless  to  supply  the  omission. 

The  whole  question  may,  evidently,  be  reduced  to  one  single 
historical  fact.  Is  the  book  3fonita  Secreta  the  work  of  the  Jesuits, 
or  is  it  not?  It  is  useless  to  examine,  in  detail,  its  contents, 
if  it  be  proved,  by  undeniable  facts,  that  it  is  the  production 
of  a  cowardly  calumniator,  who,  concealing  himself  in  the  con- 


326  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

sciousness  of  his  guilt,  has  endeavored,  hy  every  means,  to  ruin, 
in  public  opinion,  the  reputation  of  a  religious  order  whose  enemy 
he  was.  If  it  is  proved  that  this  book  is  not  the  work  of  the  Jes- 
uits^ one  could  not,  without  manifest  injustice,  make  them  respons- 
ible for  all  the  perversions  which  it  contains. 

Now,  to  this  question,  is  the  book  of  the  Moniia  the  work  of  the 
Jesuits  ?  it  will  suffice  to  oppose  three  answers,  of  which  each  one 
is  decisive.  The  first  comes  to  us  from  Rome;  the  second  from 
Poland,  where  this  book  was  first  printed ;  the  third  is  furnished 
us  by  a  learned  French  bibliographer. 

1st.  In  the  first  place,  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Cardinals 
of  the  Index,  after  the  usual  juridical  examinations,  on  the  10th 
of  May,  161G,  formally  declared  that  the  Monita  were  falsely  attrib- 
uted to  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  following  is  the  authentic  testi- 
mony of  the  Secretary  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Index : 

"  On  the  10th  of  May,  1616,  at  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Cardinals  of  the  Index,  held  in  the  palace  of  Cardinal  Bellar- 
mine,  a  report  having  been  made  on  a  book  entitled  ^Monita 
Secreta  Societatis  Jesu,  Notobergce,  1612,'  without  the  author's  name, 
their  Eminences,  the  Cardinals,  declared  that  the  work,  being 
falsely  attributed  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  full  of  calumnious  and 
defamatory  accusations,  ought  to  be  absolutely  prohibited,  com- 
manding that  henceforth  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  sell,  read, 
or  possess  the  said  book.  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  given 
this  evidence,  signed  with  my  hand,  on  the  28th  of  December, 
1616.  Francis  Magdalaenus  CopiflFerus,  of  the  Friars  Preachers, 
Secretary  of  the  said  Congregation.  Rome :  Printing-office  of  the 
Apostolical  Court,  1617.  By  permission  of  the  superior  au- 
thorities." 

Therefore,  first,  this  book  is  not  the  work  of  the  Jesuits. 

Therefore,  secondly,  it  was  printed  at  Cracow,  in  1612. 

Therefore,  thirdly,  the  anonymous  publisher  of  1861  is  con- 
victed of  imposture  when  he  dares  to  say,  one  hundred  and  forty -five 
years  after  the  decree  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Index,  "  It  ia 
but  a  few  years  ago  that  a  certain  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  called 
himself  Bishop  of  Halbustar,  having  pillaged  the  college  of  the 
Jesuits  at  Paderborn,  made  a  present  of  their  library  and  of  all 
their  papers  to  the  Capuchin  Fathers,  who  found  these  secret  in- 
structions among  the  archives  of  the  Father  Piector  of  that 
collego," 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO    VITTELLESCIII.    327 

Supposing  even  this  fable  not  to  be  full  of  contradictions,* 
this  secret  instruction  was  already  printed  and  before  the  public  for 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  somewhat  previous  to  1761. 
These  secret  instructions  had  been  already  solemnly  condemned  at 
Rome,  one  hundred  and  forty-five  years  antecedent  to  this  date, 
as  falsely  attributed  to  the  Jesuits. 

And  it  is  in  vain,  for  the  purpose  of  escaping  here  from  pal- 
pable contradictions,  that  the  publisher  of  1824  and  that  of 
1861  assume  that  the  edition  of  Paris  (Paderborn)  first  appeared 
in  1661.  It  is  eitlier  ignorance  or  dishonesty,  as  we  shall  pres- 
ently show. 

2d.  Prior  to  the  condemnation  pronounced  by  the  Congregation 
of  the  Index,  the  Bishop  of  Cracow,  Peter  Tylicki,  in  whose  dio- 
cese the  book  of  the  Monita  had  just  been  published,  had  insti- 
tuted, on  the  14th  of  July,  juridical  proceedings  against  the  sup- 
posed author  of  this  calumny.  He  was  a  priest,  named  Jerome 
Zaorowski,  who  had  passed  some  time  in  the  society,  and  who  had 
merited  expulsion  about  161  l.f 

Soon  after,  all  the  bishops  of  Poland  joined  with  Peter  Tylicki, 
Bishop  of  Cracow,  in  protesting  against  this  egregious  treachery, 
which  has  never,  says  a  historian,^  obtained  credence  but  with 
the  ignorant,  or  among  men  to  whom  error  is  a  necessity. 

Moreover,  on  the  14th  of  November,  1615,  the  Pope's  Nuncio 
at  Warsaw  confirmed,  by  his  authority,  the  juridical  proceedings 
which  had  been  commenced  by  the  Bishop  of  Cracow  against 
Jerome  Zaorowski.§ 

Eventually,  on  the  20th  of  August,  1616,  Andrew  Lipski,  Ad- 
ministrator of  the  bishopric  of  Cracow,  after  the  death  of  Bishop 
Tylicki,  condemned  the  Mo7iita  Secreta  as  a  defamatory  libel,  and 
prohibited  its  perusal.]| 

The  same  year,  1616,  the  Count  Ostrorog,  Palatine  of  Posnania, 
wrote  to  his  children,  in  a  letter,  printed  at  Neiss,  in  Silesia,  in 
1616: 

*  See  Ze  Monde  of  June  26,  1861. 

t  Barbier  Dictionnaire  des  Anonyms. 

X  Cretineau  Joly. 

I  "  Doouments  Ilistoriquea  "  concerning  the  Society  of  Jesua , 
Paris,  1828. 

II  "Documents  Historiques  "  concerning  the  Society  of  Jesus ;  Paris, 
1828. 


328  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"There  ne^er  existed  a  work  conceived  with  more  wickedness 
than  that  which  an  anonymous  impostor  has  just  published,  under 
the  false  title  of  Secret  Instructions  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  This 
impostor,  unable  to  find,  amid  the  members  of  the  society,  any 
thing  which  might  furnish  an  excuse  for  attacking  either  their 
justice  or  their  moi'als,  had  undertaken  to  accuse  the«m  of  hypoc- 
risy before  the  whole  world,  and,  in  order  that  reliance  might  be 
placed  in  his  assertions,  he  pretended  to  have  elicited  the  secrets 
which  he  revealed,  not  from  foreign  sources,  but  from  the  very 
bosom  of  the  society." 

It  results,  from  all  these  facts,  that,  even  before  the  condemnation 
pronounced  at  Rome  against  the  Monita,  it  was  considered,  through- 
out Poland,  the  only  country  in  the  world  where  it  was  at  that 
time  known,  as  the  ivork  of  an  impostor^  and  that  the  work  was 
condemned  there  by  ecclesiastioal  authority,  as  falsely  attributed 
to  the  Jesuits. 

3d.  A  distinguished  bibliographer,  whose  opinion  is  an  authority 
among  the  learned,  Barbier,  in  his  "Dictionary  of  Anonyms  and 
Pseudonyms,"  Tome  III,  No.  20,985,  places  the  book  of  the  Nonita 
Secreta  among  apocryphal  works.  He  adds  that  "  Gretser,  in  his 
refutation  of  this  book,  which  he  published  in  1618,  attributed  it  to 
a  Polish  plebeian,  and  that  Mylius,  Tome  II,  p.  1356,  mentions,  as  the 
author,  Jerome  Zaorowski,  who  was  expelled  from  the  society  about 
the  year  1611.  "  There  appeared,"  he  adds,  "  a  French  translation, 
^  Bans  les  Secrets  des  Jesuites,'  Cologne,  1669,  in  12mo.,  reprinted 
under  the  title  of  Cabinet  Jesuitique.  John  Le  Clerc  published  an- 
other ti'anslation,  with  a  Latin  text,  in  the  supplement  to  the  Me- 
moirs of  Trcvoux^  May  and  June,  1701.  There  is  still  extant  a 
separate  edition,  under  this  title:  Les  Intrigues  Secretes  des  Jesuites^ 
translated  from  the  Monita  Secreta^  Turin,  1718,  8vo.  The  same 
translation  has  been  reprinted,  with  some  alterations,  and  the 
Latin  text,  under  the  title  of  Monita  Secreta,  or  Avis  Secrets  de  la 
Societe  de  Jesus,  Paderborn,  Paris,  1761,  12mo."  Let  us  confine  our- 
selves here  to  three  remarks : 

1st.  This  learned  bibliographer,  whom  no  one  has  ever  accused 
of  partiality  for  the  Jesuits,  admits  that  the  book  is  falsely  attrib- 
uted to  them;  foi*,  to  say  that  it  is  apocryphal,  is  to  say  that  the 
assertions  it  contains  are  neither  proved  nor  authenticated. 

2d.  It  is  not  in  1661,  as  the  preface  of  the  new  edition  inti- 
mates, but  a  century  later,  in  1761,  that  the  Monita  Secreta  was 
printed,  for  the  first  time,  in  Paris,   (Paderborn.)     The  date  is 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO    VITTELLESCIII.    S29 

important.  It  was  during  the  reign  of  Voltairian  Philosophy. 
"  MeriteZj  mes  amis,  il  en  restera  toujours  quclque  c/iose."*  This  well- 
known  pass-word  is  sufficiently  expressive. 

3d.  Let  us  finally  remark  that,  at  that  time,  they  had  at  least 
the  decency  to  conceal,  under  the  rubric  of  Paderborn,  that  edition 
which  no  one  dared  to  acknowledge.!  But  we  are  progressionists. 
One  of  the  best  known  publishers  of  Paris  had  the  lemerity,  iu 
1861,  to  place  his  name  to  this  new  edition. 

"  Sevei'al  persons,"  says  the  Count  of  Ostrorog,  in  the  letter 
already  quoted,  "have  publicly  refuted  this  infamous  imposture. 
They  think,  however,  that  the  best  and  simplest  answer  that  could 
be  made  to  such  calumnies  is  a  positive  denial.  There  is  not,  in  fact, 
a  more  suitable  answer  to  be  made  to  such  gratuitous  falsehoods." 
Providence  has  provided  for  it,  as  we  have  just  seen,  and,  during 
the  two  centuries  that  the  Jesuits  suffered  under  this  freely-pro- 
mulgated libel,  the  contradiction  emanates,  at  the  same  time,  from 
episcopal  authority,  the  Apostolic  See,  and  the  researches  of  learn- 
ing. This  is,  no  doubt,  why,  at  the  present  day,  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
are  silent  when  this  crafty  and  defamatory  pamphlet  is  again  put 
forth,  and  spread  all  over  France. 

Most  assuredly,  they  would  be  justified  in  suing  for  damages 
the  publisher  of  a  pamphlet  which  has  been  refuted  a  hundred 
times,  and  which  contains  naught  but  palpable  falsehoods. 

Will  they  do  this?  We  think  not.  The  Jesuits  would  px-efer  to 
oppose  to  so  many  falsehoods  a  formal  and  positive  denial.  They 
may  safely  defy  any  one  to  rely  on  aught  but  ignorance  or  impos- 
ture, in  sustaining,  against  the  united  testimony  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  and  the  result  of  learned  investigation,  that  the  Manila 
iSccreta  are  the  production  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  And,  at  the  same 
time,  they  can  not  forget  that  our  Lord  has  said,  "  Blessed  are 
ye  when  they  shall  revile  you,  and  persecute  you,  and  speak  all 
that  is  evil  against  you,  untruly,  for  my  sake.  Be  glad  and  re- 
joice, for  your  reward  is  very  great  in  heaven ;  for  so  they  perse- 
cuted the  pi-ophets  that  were  before  you."  St.  Matthew,  c.  o,  v. 
11  and  12. — Ami  de  la  Reli(jion  of  August  2,  1861. 

*  "  Lie  on,  my  friends,  lie  ou  ;  something  will  always  stick." 
fCretineau  Joly,  2m.  et  Barbier. 


330  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

II. 

In  spite  of  these  infamous  imputations,  the  Society  of 
Jesus  continued  to  spread  throughout  Germany,  Poland, 
and  Russia.  To  the  Lutherans,  the  advancement  of  the 
society  being  that  of  the  Church,  it  became  important 
to  arrest  it,  or,  at  least,  to  impede  its  onward  march. 
In  1618,  they  had  recourse  to  arms,  arousing  the  peo- 
ple of  Bohemia  to  rebellion,  taking  possession  of  sev- 
eral towns,  under  the  command  of  Frederick,  Palatine 
Elector,  and  pursued  into  Moravia  the  Jesuits,  who  had 
taken  refuge  in  Brunn.  They  expelled  them  from  their 
retreat  on  the  15th  of  May,  1619,  and  set  fire  to  their  col- 
lege. After  a  like  expedition,  the  victors,  feeling  that  they 
owed  a  deep  debt  to  the  prince  who  had  led  them  to  vic- 
tory, reentered  Bohemia,  carrying,  as  their  only  argument, 
fire  and  sword  into  the  Catholic  cities  through  which  they 
passed,  and  placed  the  crown  of  Bohemia  on  the  brow  of 
Frederick. 

Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  had  been  educated  by  the 
Jesuits.  His  piety  and  lively  faith  would  not  allow  him 
to  remain  a  passive  spectator  of  these  grievous  devastations. 
In  the  early  part  of  1620,  he  collected  his  forces,  placed 
himself  at  their  head,  and,  desiring  to  call  down  the  Divine 
blessing  on  the  war  he  was  entering  upon,  requested  the 
Society  of  Jesus  to  allow  some  of  its  heroes  to  accompany 
the  Bavarian  army.  Accordingly,  eighteen  Jesuits  were 
permitted  to  join  the  expedition.  To  him  this  was  an  as- 
surance of  victory.  He  pursued  his  march  successfully  as 
far  as  Prague  ;  he  routed  Prince  Frederick,  recapturing 
all  he  had  taken,  and  established  every-where  order  and 
subordination.  The  heretical  King  had  reigned  but  a  few 
months,  and  he  was  surnamed  by  the  Germans  the  "  Win- 
ter Kingy 

The  war  was  followed  by  the  plague.     The  soldiers  were 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.     331 

the  first  attacked ;  but  the  Jesuits  were  there,  and,  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  usual  habits,  devoted  themselves  to 
alleviate  sufl'ering.  Six  of  their  number  found  their  death 
in  this  exercise  of  charity.  The  ever-heroic  devotion  of 
the  society,  in  the  midst  of  public  calamity,  was  well 
known;  it  was  the  same  in  every  country  to  which  the 
members  wended  their  way.  But  their  holy  resignation  and 
self-denial,  so  eloquent  in  their  effects,  did  not  prevent  the 
tongue  of  calumny  from  following  them  with  its  venom. 

Sigismund,  King  of  Poland,  desired  to  found  a  new  col- 
lege of  the  Jesuits  in  the  city  of  Cracow.  The  University 
loudly  protested  against  it,  declared  that  this  was  erecting 
school  against  school,  and  that  it  was  compelled  to  oppose, 
with  all  its  force,  the  royal  project.  The  learned  facul- 
ties drew  up  a  petition,  which  they  presented  to  the  King. 
Sigismund  had  been  partially  educated  by  the  Jesuits,  and 
could  better  appreciate  them  than  the  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity, who  were  blinded  by  jealousy.  He  read  in  this 
petition  that  the  Jesuits  are  "  skilled  in  a  thousand  artifices, 
and  are  instructed  to  feign  simplicity."  He  felt  that  he 
could  give  no  other  reply  to  this  petition  than  by  carrying 
out  his  project;  he  therefore  founded  the  college.  The 
universities,  finding  that  Poland  was  threatened  on  the  one 
side  by  the  Lutherans,  and  on  the  other  by  the  Turks, 
sought  to  incite  a  revolution,  so  as,  by  that  means,  to  obtain 
what  Sigismund  had  refused  to  cede  them.  The  monarch 
was  elective;  another  king  would  be  chosen,  and  they 
would  impose,  as  a  condition,  that  he  should  give  his  sup- 
port only  to  the  University  of  Cracow,  which  felt  its  very 
existence  threatened  by  the  Jesuits.  This  plan  decided 
upon  (1621),  they  took  up  arms.  The  King  brought 
forward  his  troops  against  this  insurrection  of  professors 
and  students,  and  sent  the  former  back  to  their  chairs, 
and  the  latter  to  their  forms.  The  vanquished,  compelled 
to  abandon  the  sword,  resumed  the  pen,  in  the  hopes  of  a 
30 


332  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

less  unhappy  result.  They  addressed  the  University  of 
Louvain,  giving  what  purports  to  be  a  serious  account  of 
the  tragical  events  of  which  Cracow  had  been  the  scene ; 
and  in  this  letter,  which  bears  date  the  28th  of  July,  and 
which  the  press  has  handed  down  to  posterity,  they  have 
the  hardihood  to  declare,  that  "  the  city  was  inundated" 
with  the  blood  of  the  innocent  which  the  Jesuits  caused 
to  be  spilt;  but  the  Fathers,  not  being  content  with  the 
slaughter,  employed  executioners,  whose  arms  grew  tired, 
and  who,  touched  with  pity,  at  length  refused  to  continue 
the  massacre." 

This  Massacre  of  the  Innocents  so  pleased  the  University 
of  Louvain,  that  it  decided,  in  open  session,  that  copies  of 
the  Cracow  letter  should  be  sent  to  all  the  universities  in 
Europe.  That  of  Paris  distinguished  itself  by  the  manner 
in  which  it  responded.  In  the  exuberance  of  their  joy, 
the  members  lavished  maledictions  on  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
while  they  bestowed  the  greatest  praise  upon  the  Polish 
insurgents,  and  declared  that  they  bitterly  grieved  for  the 
victims  of  the  cruelty  of  the  Jesuits. 

If  the  members  of  the  University  of  Cracow  had  di- 
rected its  attention  toward  Livonia,  it  would  have  seen,  in 
that  same  year,  1621,  the  Swedish  Lutherans  forcing  the 
city  of  Riga  to  a  capitulation,  of  which  one  of  the 
most  important  conditions  was  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits;  it  would  have  seen  these  holy  religious  leave 
that  city  as  humbly  as  they  had  entered  it,  never  think- 
ing of  slaughtering  either  innocent  or  guilty,  but  al- 
ways praying  for  their  enemies  and  persecutors.  Some 
days  after,  Gustavus  Adolphus  expelled  them  from  Ven- 
den,  which  city  they  left  as  they  had  left  Riga,  with  hearts 
^lled  with  charity  for  those  who  cursed  them  through  an 
pxcess  of  blindness.  They  were  Jesuits,  and,  therefore, 
thoy  recalled,  as  now  their  successors  often  do,  the  saying 
of  our  Lord  to  his  first  apostles,  who,  also,  were  members 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCIII.     333 

of  the  Society  of  Jesus :  "  If  you  be  expelled  from  one 
city,  pass  to  another."  The  Palatine  of  Smolensk,  Corvin 
Gosiewski,  did  not  allow  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  advance 
further.  He  went  forth  to  meet  him,  and  gave  him  battle 
near  Dunamunde.  As  a  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God 
for  the  victory  which  he  there  obtained,  he  founded  a  col- 
lege of  Jesuits  in  the  city  from  which  he  had  just  ex- 
pelled  their  enemies. 

We  have  already  remarked,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the 
weak-minded,  who  are  far  more  numerous  than  the  re- 
flecting, we  repeat,  that  beneath  all  the  hate,  accusations, 
and  persecutions  with  which  the  society  has  ever  been  hon- 
ored, if  the  facts  be  examined,  there  will  be  found  jeal- 
ousy, heresy,  impiety,  or  bad  passions. 

While  the  Jesuits  were  repulsed  by  the  members  of  the 
University  of  Cracow,  and  expelled  from  Riga  and  Venden 
by  an  army  of  Lutherans,  the  Hungarians  were  earnestly 
entreating,  at  the  court  of  Rome,  the  favor  of  having  for 
Archbishop  of  Gran  no  other  than  a  Father  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  Peter  Pazmany.  This  Jesuit  was  the  beloved 
Apostle  of  Hungary.  He  had  converted  more  than  fifty 
of  the  most  distinguished  families,  and  Cardinal  Forgaez, 
Archbishop  of  Gran,  being  dead,  there  was  a  general  ex- 
pression in  the  diocese  in  favor  of  Father  Pazmany  as  his 
successor  in  the  See.  All  their  solicitations  could  not 
overcome  the  humility  of  the  religious.  The  Emperor, 
Ferdinand  II,  was  not  more  successful  than  his  subjects, 
and  they  had  recourse  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  represent- 
ing to  him  that  no  one  would  be  able  to  preserve  the  faith 
like  the  holy  religious,  to  whom  Hungary  owed  such  brill- 
iant and  numerous  conquests  over  heresy.  They  added  that 
no  one  would  know  so  well  the  wants  of  the  diocese,  and 
sustain  more  vigorously  the  contests  against  Lutheranism, 
which  ceased  not  to  /enew  its  attacks,  and  that  no  other 
voice  in  the  world  would  be  understood,  loved,  and  obeyed 


334  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

SO  well  as  that  of  the  venerated  Father  Pazmany.  The 
Pope  was  moved.  He  commanded,  the  Father-General  was 
compelled  to  yield,  and,  in  his  turn,  enjoined  the  humble 
Jesuit  to  accept  the  charge  imposed  upon  him. 

In  Italy,  and  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  where  the  here- 
tics had  less  access,  the  Jesuits  devoted  themselves,  with 
more  security  for  the  future,  to  all  the  labors  inspired 
by  their  zeal  and  charity.  At  Naples,  Father  Pavone 
founded  a  congregation  of  priests,  destined  to  train,  young 
men  to  priestly  virtues,  and  this  congregation  produced 
such  results  for  the  good  of  the  Church,  that  it  was  able 
to  furnish  her,  in  a  few  years,  one  Sovereign  Pontiff,  fifteen 
bishops,  one  hundred  and  eighty  prelates,  and  a  multitude 
of  priests  of  eminent  merit.  Eighty  houses  of  this  insti- 
tution were  established  in  the  kingdom,  where  it  is  still 
in  full  vigor.  Father  Peter  Ferragut  established,  in  1617, 
in  the  same  city,  the  confraternity  Delia  MUericordia.,  for 
the  help  and  liberation  of  prisoners. 

At  Lucca,  serious  misunderstandings  had  arisen  between 
the  bishop  and  the  inhabitants.  Father  Constanzio  was 
selected  as  mediator,  and  he  reestablished  unity  and  con- 
cord between  the  pastor  and  his  flock. 

At  Malta,  two  factions  had  arisen  among  the  knights. 
Disputes  became  bitter,  and  several  princes  had  in  vain 
endeavored  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation.  Father  Charles 
Mastrilli  undertook  to  settle  the  dispute,  and  found  in  every 
one  a  willing  listener.  On  either  side  the  concessions  pro- 
posed by  the  Jesuit  were  accepted,  and  peace  was  re 
established. 

In  France,  Father  Coton  had  asked  for  and  obtained 
permission  to  go  to  Rome,  and  repose,  for  a  time,  from  the 
labors  occasioned  by  his  position  as  the  King's  Confessor, 
in  the  midst  of  so  many  intrigues  of  courtiers  and  the 
strifes  of  antagonistic  parties.  Father  Arnoux  succeeded 
him  at  the  court  of  Louis  XIII.     The  title  of  Jesuit  was 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCHI.    335 

sure  to  make  enemies  for  Father  Arnoux,  the  same  as  it 
had  done  I'or  Fatlier  Coton  ;  for,  notwitstanding  the  calum- 
nies with  which  the  spirit  of  evil  delighted  to  assail  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  it  was  known  even  to  their  enemies,  that 
the  Jesuits  never  acted  against  their  consciences,  nor  sought 
to  gratify  ambition.  Therefore,  there  was  nothing  to  hope 
for  from  the  King's  Confessor  in  any  thing  where  the  glory 
of  God  would  not  demand  his  interference. 

The  intrigues  of  the  court  had  caused  a  deplorable  di- 
vision between  the  Queen  and  her  son.  Maria  di  Medicis, 
a  prisoner  in  the  Chateau  de  Blois,  had  been  rescued  by 
the  Duke  d'Epernon,  w^ho  conveyed  her  to  Angouleme, 
where  her  followers  intended  to  defend  her;  for  the  report 
spread  that  the  King  was  about  to  declare  open  war  against 
his  mother,  and  the  whole  of  France  grieved  at  such  a 
scandal.  Father  Arnoux  had  been  compelled  to  oppose, 
but  in  vain,  what  had  already  been  done.  But  who  could 
know  it?  To  employ  the  same  means  to  prevent  the  war 
•which  France  dreaded,  would  have  been  to  expose  the 
word  of  God  to  a  lamentable  sterility.  The  King's  Con- 
fessor had  the  courage  to  dare  every  thing  in  order  to  pre- 
vent a  great  crime  and  great  bloodshed.  He  preached 
before  the  court  in  the  presence  of  the  King,  alluded  to 
the  reports  that  had  been  current  for  some  daj's,  and  ex- 
claimed, with  the  holy  freedom  of  his  apostolical  ministry  : 

"It  can  not  be  believed  that  a  religious  prince  draws  his 
sword  to  shed  the  blood  from  which  he  sprang.  Sire,  you 
will  not  permit  what  I  have  here  asserted,  in  this  pulpit, 
to  prove  a  falsehood  !  I  conjure  you  by  the  Sacred  Heart 
of  Jesus  not  to  give  ear  to  extreme  counsels,  not  to  give 
this  scandal  to  Christianity." 

The   King  was  moved.     Reflection   led    him   to   listen 

to  the  advice  of  Father  Arnoux,  and  he  became  reconciled 

to  Maria  di  Medicis.      But  the  Duke  de  Luynes  did  not 

pardon  the  Jesuits  a  success  which  destroyed  all  his  secret 

30^ 


336  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

plans.  Two  years  after,  in  1621,  Father  Arnoux  was  out 
of  favor  on  a  charge  of  intolerance,  although  a  Jesuit,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Father  Seguiran.  This  did  not  accord 
with  the  wishes  of  the  courtiers,  whom  the  presence  of  a 
Jesuit  incommoded.  No  sooner  had  Father  Seguiran  ap- 
peared at  court,  than  he  was  charged  with  aspiring  to  the 
highest  honors,  and  disputing  precedence  with  bishops 
and  cardinals.  This  report  reached  the  ears  of  Cardinals 
La  Kochefoucauld  and  Richelieu,  who  hastened  to  contra- 
dict the  rumor,  and  declared  it  to  be  an  infamous  calumny  ; 
but  it  had  been  already  sufficiently  promulgated  to  be 
worked  upon  and  credited  abroad,  like  all  the  imputations 
which  the  blind  hatred  of  the  adversaries  of  the  society 
sought  to  heap  upon  it. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  same  year,  1621,  a  strange  case 
was  submitted  to  the  Holy  See  for  decision.  The  reader 
will  remember  the  ini^-enious  means  which  the  zeal  of 
Father  Nobili  susraested  to  him  for  the  conversion  of 
the  Indians  of  Madura.  Some  Europeans  had  been  scan- 
dalized by  this  method  of  appearing  all  things  to  all  men,, 
in  order  to  win  all  to  Christ.  Complaint  had  been  made 
at  Goa,  and  Father  Nobili,  who,  they  said,  had  become  a 
Brahmin,  and  given  himself  up  to  idolatry  and  super- 
stition, was  summoned  to  that  city  in  1618,  whither  he 
hastened,  and  where  the  sight  of  his  singular  costume 
elicited  a  general  expression  of  indignation.  Father  Rob- 
ert was  not  surprised  at  this.  He  had  foreseen  it,  and  had 
hoped  to  dispel  the  storm  by  the  motives  which  he  could 
adduce  ;  but  in  this  he  was  mistaken.  The  Jesuits  accepted 
them  as  sufficient,  but  the  Archbishop  absolutely  refused 
to  see  their  force.  In  authorizing  the  missionary  to  lay 
aside  the  holy  habit  of  his  Order,  and  conform  himself  to 
the  customs  of  the  peoples  he  was  going  to  convert,  the 
prelate  declared  that  he  had  not  intended  to  sanction  his 
assuming  this  absurd  garb,  and  passing  himself  off  as  a 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCIII.    337 

sort  of  priest  of  false  gods.  The  missionary,  satisfied  with 
his  own  good  intentions  and  experience,  asserted  that  the 
truths  of  the  Gospel  could  not  have  been  introduced  into 
Madura  by  any  other  means,  and  the  matter  was  referred 
to  Rome  for  decision.  Cardinal  Bellarmine,  Father  Nobili's 
uncle,  openly  declared  against  his  nephew.  Father  Nobili 
persisted,  developing  his  reasons  with  so  much  eloquence 
and  zeal  that,  w^hile  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  Holy  See, 
Father  Almeida,  a  Dominican  and  Inquisitor  at  Goa,  de- 
clared that  the  missionary  might,  in  conscience,  continue 
the  work  he  had  commenced,  and  he  obtained  the  consent 
of  the  Archbishop.  Father  Nobili,  thereupon,  returned 
to  Madura. 

At  the  same  time,  Pope  Paul  V,  desiring  to  show  the  soci- 
ety a  mark  of  his  gratitude  for  the  services  it  had  rendered 
to' the  Church  during  his  Pontificate,  desired  to  confer 
the  dignity  of  Cardinal  upon  the  Father-General.  Father 
Vittelleschi,  on  becoming  acquainted  with  this  fact,  called 
together  the  assistants  of  the  Provinces,  and,  announcing 
to  them  the  blow  with  which  he  was  threatened,  directed 
them  to  use  every  means  in  their  power  to  avert  it,  and 
then  fled.  Father  Balthasar,  one  of  these  assistants,  was 
commissioned  to  place  at  the  feet  of  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff the  expression  of  the  deep  regret  felt  by  the  society 
and  its  General,  to  whom  humility  was  infinitely  more 
precious  than  life.  But  the  Pope,  who  had  been  for  a 
long  time  ill,  had  bees  just  pronounced  in  great  danger. 
His  death  quickly  followed,  and,  on  the  9th  of  February, 
1621,  Gregory  XV  succeeded  Paul  V. 

In  the  month  of  August  following,  the  young  religious, 
John  Berchmans,  was  borne  from  this  world  in  the  arms 
of  the  angels.  He  had  been  a  student  of  the  Roman 
College,  and  a  worthy  emulator  of  Aloysius  Gonzaga  and 
Stanislaus  Kostka. 

On  the  17th  of  September,  Cardinal   Bellarmine,  who, 


338  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

in  heart  and  mind,  had  ever  been  a  Jesuit,  crowned  a 
most  beautiful  life  by  a  most  holy  death,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-nine.  The  whole  Church  joined  in  the  mourning 
and  grief  of  the  Koman  court.  To  the  Society  of  Jesus 
the  loss,  it  is  true,  was  immense ;  but,  in  parting  with  so 
great  and  noble  an  ornament  on  earth,  it  had  gained  one 
more  noble  and  more  glorious,  in  heaven. 

Gregory  XV,  of  the  Ludovisio  family,  had  been  a 
pupil  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  German  College,  which  had 
furnished  so  many  and  such  celebrated  men.*  Scarcely 
had  he  been  elevated  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  than  all 
the  Catholic  sovereigns  of  Europe,  and  of  the  East, 
hastened  to  renew  their  entreaties  for  the  canonization  of 
St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola  and  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  both 
of  whom  had  been  beatified  by  his  predecessor,  Paul  V. 
Three  princes,  pupils  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Emperor  Fer- 
dinand Sigismund,  King  of  Poland,  Maximilian  of  Bava- 
ria, Louis  XIII,  King  of  France,  Philip  IV,  King  of 
Spain  and  Portugal,  all  the  princes  of  Italy,  and  all  the 
Christian  kings  of  the  Indies  and  Japan,  simultaneously 
solicited  the  glorification  of  these  two  evangelical  heroes, 
whom  Almighty  God  himself  had  been  pleased  to  illus- 
trate by  such  numerous  miracles,  and  who  were  never 
invoked  in  vain.  Gregory  XV,  yielding  to  so  many  peti- 
tions, pronounced  the  panegyric  of  these  two  saints  in 
the  consistory  of  the  12th  of  February,  1622,  and  cele- 
brated  the    feast   of   their   canonisation   on   the   12th    of 

*  Up  to  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the  German  College  had  seen 
issue  from  ito  walls  one  Pope  (Gregory  XV),  twenty-four  Cardinals, 
six  Electors  of  the  Holy  Empire,  nineteen  Princes,  twenty-one 
Archbishops  and  Prelates,  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  Titular 
Bishops,  one  hundred  Bishops  in  partibus  inJideUum,  forty-six 
mitred  Abbots,  or  Generals  of  Orders,  eleven  martyrs  to  the  faith, 
thirteen  martyrs  of  charity.  The  Roman  College  has  given  eight 
Popes  to  the  Church,  a  great  many  Cardinals,  a  multitude  of  learned, 
illustrious  men,  and  of  holy  personages  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FxiTIIER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    339 

March;  but  death  prevented  him  from  publishing  tlie 
apostolical  Bull  which  was  to  have  been  the  crowning  of 
his  work.  This  consolation  was  reserved  for  another 
pupil  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Cardinal  Mafifeo  Barberini, 
of  the  Roman  College.  On  his  election  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontificate,  on  the  6th  of  August,  1623,  he  took  the 
name  of  Urban  VIII,  and  gave  to  the  Catholic  world  the 
much-desired  Bull,  dated  on  the  very  day  of  his  exalt- 
ation. 

It  is  beautiful  thus  to  behold,  united  in  the  same  hon- 
ors and  the  same  glory,  these  two  great  souls,  whose 
only  attraction  was  God  alone,  and  who  loved  each  other 
with  that  tenderness  and  detachment  from  every  thing 
worldly,  which  are  the  Divine  seal  of  holy  afifections 
here  below. 

III. 

The  German  princes,  who  leagued  together  through 
hatred  to  the  Boman  faith,  had  chosen  Christian  of 
Brunswick  as  Generalissimo  of  the  confederate  army. 
Christian  constituted  himself  Bishop  of  Herbestadt,  took 
the  title,  and,  in  his  twofold  capacity  of  General  and 
Bishop,  was  preceded  by  two  standards,  which  left  no 
doubt  as  to  what  might  be  expected  from  such  a  victor. 
On  the  first  of  these  banners,  waving  at  the  head  of  the 
army  which  he  commanded,  might  be  seen  a  crushed  tiara  ; 
on  the  other  was  inscribed  the  device  adopted  by  Christian  : 
"Friend  of  Man — Foe  of  the  Jesuits!"  Nothing  more 
clearly  proves  that  the  Jesuits  and  the  Church  were,  to 
the  heretics,  one  and  the  same,  and  that  the  hostility  they 
manifested  toward  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  the  result  of 
the  hatred  which  they  bore  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
John,  Count  of  Tilly,  pupil  of  the  Jesuits,  and  General 
of  the  imperial  army,  attacked  Christian  near  Hoestings, 
defeated  him,  and  freed  the  city  of  Heidelberg  from  the 


340  HISTORY  OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Palatine    Elector,   Frederick,   who    had   taken  possession 
of  it. 

The  Count  of  Tilly  had  some  Jesuits  in  his  army.  He 
would  not  expose  his  soldiers  to  death  without  giving 
them  religious  aid,  and  he  wished  to  draw  down  on  his 
army  all  the  blessings  of  Heaven.  As  soon  as  he  had 
recaptured  Heidelberg,  the  Fathers  returned  thither  and 
heroically  devoted  themselves  to  its  service,  as  they  ever 
did  elsewhere.  They  had  great  ruins  to  clear  away,  great 
sorrows  to  console,  and  great  miseries  to  relieve ;  but  their 
charity,  which  was  always  so  tender  and  so  ingenious, 
was  equal  to  the  task.  About  the  same  time,  Father  Sand 
met  his  death  from  the  sword  of  the  Lutherans,  and 
Father  Arnold  Boecop  was  poisoned  by  the  soldiers  of 
Ernst  Mansfeld. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1624,  Father  Becan,  Confessor 
of  Ferdinand  III,  died  at  Vienna,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Father  Lamormaini.  All  the  Catholic  princes  of  Ger- 
many desired  to  be  under  the  direction  of  a  member  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  as,  at  the  period  at  which  we 
have  arrived,  most  of  the  princes  were  brought  up  in  the 
German  College,  or  had  received,  at  an  early  age,  the 
pious  instructions  of  the  Fathers,  most  of  them  might  be 
considered  their  pupils.  Hence  all  those  furious  invec- 
tives of  heresy  against  the  secret  powers  of  the  Jesuits — 
invectives  which  have  so  often  been  renewed,  that  they 
have,  thanks  to  public  credulity,  acquired  the  importance 
of  historical  facts.  These  religious  had,  it  is  true,  and 
always  will  have,  an  extraordinary  power  of  doing  good. 
As  to  the  power  with  which  they  are  reproached,  it  is  but 
the  influence  of  their  gentle  humility  and  their  preemi- 
nent virtue.  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  possess 
the  lanciy  These  Divine  words,  which  fell,  one  day,  from 
the  lips  of  the  Man-God,  to  the  multitude  which  covered 
a  mountain  of  Judea,  sufficiently  explain  a   power  which 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER    MUTIO  VITTELLESCHI.    341 

the  Society  of  Jesus  never  employed  but  for  the  glory, 
and  for  the  greater  glory ^  of  God. 

In  the  German  states  governed  by  Catholic  princes, 
the  Jesuits  acted  with  a  freedom  which  facilitated  the 
wonders  they  effected.  At  Iglau  and  Znaym,  in  Moravia, 
there  was  not  a  sin2;le  Catholic.  Cardinal  Dietrichstein 
asked  for  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  established 
them  in  the  midst  of  this  heretical  people.  Three  years 
later,  the  city  of  Znaym  presented  to  the  Emperor,  Fer- 
dinand II,  a  massive  gold  crucifix,  on  which  was  engraved 
this  inscription:  ^'- A  pledge  of  fidelity ;  presented  to  Fer- 
dindnd  II,  hy  the  Catholic  city  of  Znaym.''  The  Jesuits 
had  not  found  a  single  Catholic  in  that  city,  and  now  it 
contained  not  a  single  heretic.  Iglau  presented  a  similar 
marvel.  The  Lutherans  of  Glatz  had  expelled  the  Fathers 
by  revolting  against  the  Emperor.  This  was  the  result 
of  all  insurrections.  Ferdinand  conquered  the  insurgents 
by  force  of  arms,  and  was  preparing  to  punish  them ;  but 
the  Lutherans  knew  the  victims  of  their  calumnies,  and 
they  had  recourse  to -those  Jesuits  whom  they  had  perse- 
cuted, cursed^  and  banished.  They  implored  their  inter- 
cession. The  Jesuits  gladly  seized  the  opportunity  of 
making  use  of  that  power  which  was  so  much  feared. 
They  entreated  the  imperial  clemency  for  their  persecu- 
tors, and  they  obtained  it.  The  inhabitants  of  Glatz  could 
not  resist  this  great  example  of  charity.  They  recalled 
the  Jesuits,  and  afi'orded  them  the  consolation  of  seeing 
them  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  In  162ii,  Fer- 
dinand II  ordered  a  census  of  all  the  heretics  of  his  em- 
pire who  had  been  converted  by  the  Jesuits.  The  num- 
ber amounted  to  over  a  million. 

"  Must  it  be  inferred  from  this,"  says  Ranke,  "  that  the 
Protestant  religion  had  not  yet  taken  deep  root  among  the 
masses,  or  must  this  revolution  be  attributed  to  the  skil- 
ful propagandism  of  the  Jesuits  ?     At  least  they  were  not 


342  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

wanting  in  either  zeal  or  prudence.  You  see  them  spread 
themselves  in  all  directions,  misleading  and  persuading 
the  masses.  Their  churches  are  the  most  frequented. 
If  there  be  any-where  a  Lutheran  versed  in  the  Bible, 
whose  teachino;s  exercise  influence  over  his  neighbors, 
they  employ  every  means  to  convert  him,  and,  so  accus- 
tomed are  they  to  controversy,  that  they  almost  invariably 
succeed  !  They  prove  themselves  charitable,  curing  the 
sick,  seeking  to  reconcile  enemies,  and  engaging,  by  solemn 
oaths,  those  whom  they  have  brought  back  to  the  faith. 
The  faithful  are  seen  flockinir,  beneath  their  banners,  to  all 
the  pilgrimages,  and  men  who  were,  but  a  short  time-  be- 
fore, still  ardent  Protestants,  mix  in  their  processions."* 

The  Protestants,  in  their  armed  revolt,  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  property  of  the  clergy  and  religious  orders. 
They  had  appropriated  it  to  their  own  use,  and  retained 
it  without  the  least  scruple.  The  Pope's  Nuncio,  Charles 
Carafa,  assisted  by  Father  Lamormaini,  persuaded  the 
Emperor  to  order  its  restitution,  which  the  Holy  See  ex- 
acted. The  Pope  decided  that  the  monasteries  whose 
religious  no  longer  existed,  should  be  del^oted  to  the 
establishment  of  seminaries  and  colleges,  conducted  by  the 
Jesuits  and  other  religious.  This  measure  necessarily 
aroused  the  anger  of  the  heretics,  and  increased  the  num- 
ber of  their  victims.  On  the  9th  of  August,  1629,  Father 
Burnat  was  assassinated  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  in  the 
village  church  of  Libun.  Some  time  after,  Father  John 
Meag  and  Jeremy  Fischer,  as  also  Brothers  Martin,  Igna- 
tius, and  Wenceslas  Tronoska,  perished  at  the  hands  of 
the  Protestants. 

In  Germany,  as  in  other  Catholic  countries  where  magi- 
cians and  sorcerers  were  condemned  to  be  burned  alive,  it 
too  often  happened  that  revenge  or  hatred  sent  innocent 

*IIi3t.  Popes,  Book  VII,  c.  I,  §5,  Austin's  Trans, 


GENERALSllll'  OF  FATIIKll  iMUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    343 

victims  to  the  stake.  When  an  enemy  had  nothing  to 
bring  against  him  whom  he  sought  to  injure,  he  accused 
liini  of  witchcraft  and  magic,  and  in  Germany,  through 
fanaticism,  the  judges  ahnost  invariably  pronounced  sen- 
tence without  thoroughly  knowing  or  examining  the  ease. 
It  resulted,  from  this,  that  executions  became  daily  more 
numerous.  In  1593,  Cornelius  de  Loos,  a  priest,  as  zeal- 
ous as  he  was  enlightened,  had  raised  his  voice  against 
this  barbaj-ity,  and  had  atoned,  with  his  liberty,  for  this 
cry  of  his  priestly  heart.  Father  Adam  Tanner,  a  learned 
Jesuit,  and  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Prague,  some 
time  after,  published  a  work  with  the  intention  of  en- 
lightening the  Germans  on  the  deplorable  effects  of  their 
fanatical  credulity  ;  but  his  book  did  not  meet  with  read- 
ers sufficiently  well-disposed  to  insure  it  success,  and  they 
had  confined  themselves  to  respecting  the  intentions  and 
the  person  of  the  author,  whose  opinion  they  refused  to 
adopt. 

In  1629,  Father  Frederick  Spec,  who,  being  often  called 
to  the  aid  of  these  victims  of  a  blinded  judgment,  ex- 
perienced unutterable  torments  at  the  sight  of  their 
unmerited  suflferings,  learned  that  a  considerable  number 
of  innocent  persons  had  been  condemned  at  the  same 
time  at  Wurzburg.  He  hastened  to  their  assistance,  ex- 
horted, consoled,  and  encouraged  them,  and  made  of 
them  so  many  martyrs,  whom  he  accompanied  to  the 
stake,  and  whom  his  tears  still  comforted  when  his  voice, 
choked  with  grief,  could  no  longer  reach  them.  On  the 
following  day,  a  canon  of  the  cathedral,  Philip  Schoen- 
born,  meeting  him,  was  unable  to  recognize  the  charita- 
ble Jesuit. 

"What!  Reverend  Father,"  said  he;  "is  it  really  you? 
But  yesterday  you  had  not  a  gray  hair,  and  to-day  you 
are  an  old  man  1  " 

"  If,  like  me,"  answered  Father  Frederick,  "  you  had 
31 


344  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

accompanied  to  the  stake  so  many  victims  "who,  until 
their  last  breath,  called  God  to  witness  their  innocence — 
an  innocence  which  was  proved  to  me  by  other  evidences — 
your  hair  would  have  become  as  white  as  mine  !  " 

Father  Frederick  Spee  was  but  forty  years  of  age.  The 
Canon  of  Schoenborn,  deeply  aifected  by  his  words,  and 
by  the  touching  expression  of  his  tearful  countenance, 
never  forgot  that  great  priestly  sorrow ;  and  when,  soon 
after,  Providence  called  him  to  the  Archbishopric  of  May- 
euce,  his  first  official  act  was  to  suppress,  in  his  diocese, 
all  proceedings  against  sorcerers.  During  this  time,  Fred- 
erick Spee  was  engaged  on  a  Latin  work,  entitled  Cautio 
Criminalism  which  he  published  in  1631.  The  learning 
of  the  author,  his  literary  reputation,  and  the  respect 
and  veneration  which  his  gentle  virtues  inspired,  caused 
this  work  to  be  sought  for,  and  its  success  was  such  that 
thenceforth  the  cases  of  witchcraft  were  no  longer  enter- 
tained, except  in  evidence  of  proof,  and  convictions  be- 
came as  rare  as  they  had  hitherto  been  frequent.  The 
holy  Jesuit  might  die  ;  he  had  accomplished  his  mission, 
and  he  already  saw  its  beneficial  results. 

In  1635,  he  was  at  Treves,  where,  on  the  6th  of  May, 
the  Imperialists  made  their  entrance  after  having  defeated 
the  French.  The  Jesuit,  ever  compassionate  and  charita- 
ble, recognized  only  brothers  in  the  vanquished,  and  he 
devoted  himself  to  them  with  the  most  affectionate  solici- 
tude.  Four  hundred  prisoners  were,  at  his  request,  set 
oit  liberty,  and  all  the  wounded  were  the  object  of  his 
ii^ost  tender  cayp.  He  was  among  them  day  and  night, 
unmindful  of  his  own  exhausted  state  and  personal  suffer- 
ing, lavishing  upon  the  enemies  qf  his  country  the  treas- 
ures of  his  charity  and  the  ineffable  consolations  of  his 
ministry,  when,  on  the  7th  of  August,  he  expired  in  t|ie 
exercise  of  that  humble  and  sublime  apostleship,  JJp 
was  forty-seven  years  of  age. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCUI.    345 

A  few  years  after,  in  16-42,  the  Lutherans,  who  had  tri- 
umphed at  Leipsic,  observed  a  Jesuit  leaning  over  the 
wounded  soldiers  left  on  the  field  of  battle.  It  was  Father 
Lawrence  Passok.  They  proposed  to  him,  as  the  condition 
whereby  he  might  save  his  life,  to  blaspheme  the  name  of 
the  Immaculate  Virgin.  Lawrence  Passok  preferred  death, 
which  was  his  instant  fate.  At  no  great  distance,  the 
Prince  of  Lauenburg  recognized  Father  Kramer,  whom  he 
perceived  hearing  the  confession  of  a  dying  soldier.  He 
approached  him,  and  with  a  blow  from  the  butt-end  of  his 
pistol  fractured  his  skull. 

IV. 

The  Parliament  and  the  University  of  Paris,  being  un- 
able to  bear  with  patience  the  marks  of  esteem  and  affec- 
tion which  Cardinal  Richelieu  appeared  to  lavish  upon  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  watched  their  opportunity  to  provoke  the 
susceptibility  of  the  distrustful  minister,  and  to  make  of 
him  the  most  potent  enemy  of  the  Jesuits.  The  under- 
taking seemed  difficult  to  them,  it  is  true,  but  they  were  de- 
termined to  brave  all  to  attain  their  ends. 

In  1624,  the  young  Prince  Henry  of  Bourbon  had  just 
been  nominated  to  the  Bishopric  of  Metz,  and  had  to  sus- 
tain a  theological  thesis.  The  King  had  expressed  his 
desire  to  be  present,  with  all  his  court,  at  the  ceremony. 
The  prince,  through  gratitude  for  his  dear  masters,  se- 
lected their  college  wherein  to  undergo  the  examination. 
The  Jesuits  persuaded  him  to  give  the  preference  to  the 
Sorbonne,  which  he  refused  to  do,  -wishing  that  the  scene 
should  be  in  the  place  where  he  had  performed  his  studies. 
The  University  could  not  prevent  this  evidence  of  high 
homage  to  tltose  whom  it  called  its  rivals,  and  it  vowed  to 
be  avenged. 

Father  Coton  returned  from  Rome  with  the  title  of  Pro- 
vincial of  France,  and  an  extra  claim  to  the  hatred  of  the 


346  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

heretics  ;  for  he  had  converted  the  illustrious  Lord  High 
Constable  of  France,  Lesdigui^res,  whose  friend  he  was, 
On  his  arrival  in  Paris,  the  celebrated  Jesuit  was  informed 
of  the  animosity  of  the  University.  He  heard  that  it  vio- 
lently attacked  any  book  written  by  the  Fathers,  and  that 
it  openly  accused  them  of  monopolizing  education.  Father 
Coton  preached  before  the  court,  where  he  had  devoted 
friends  ;  but,  while  he  endeavored  to  exonerate  his  brothers 
from  the  imputation  cast  upon  them  by  the  University,  a 
fresh  attack  was  made  upon  them  from  another  quarter, 
A  native  of  Dieppe  accused  Father  Ambrose  Guyot  of 
conspiring  in  favor  of  the  Spanish.  The  accuser  himself, 
soon  convicted  of  treason,  was  condemned  to  the  scaffold, 
where  he  made  a  retraction,  and  declared  Father  Guyot 
innocent;  but  a  bad  impression  still  remained  in  the  mind 
of  Richelieu.  This  was  what  the  enemies  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  desired.     Their  first  stone  was  laid. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1626,  there  appeared  in  Paris 
a  Latin  work  which  was  written  and  published  in  Rome  by 
a  Jesuit,  Father  Santarelli,  and  in  which  the  ultramon- 
tane doctrines  on  the  rights  of  the  Holy  See  in  regard  to 
princes  were  sustained  in  all  their  primitive  force.  The 
Society  of  the  Sorbonne  and  Parliament  loudly  protested 
against  this,  and  Richelieu  shared  their  indignation.  Louis 
Servin,  Attorney-General,  took  upon  himself  to  attack  the 
doctrines  professed  by  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  the  con- 
demned work.  The  King  intending  to  hold  a  court  of 
justice  in  Parliament  on  the  6th  of  March,  it  was  that  day 
that  Servin  chose,  hoping  that  his  pleading  in  presence  of 
Louis  XIII  would,  at  least,  result  in  the  expulsion  of  the 
society. 

Accordingly,  on  the  6th  of  March,  the  King  presided 
in  the  Parliament,  the  entire  court  being  then  assembled, 
and  the  time  having  arrived,  the  Attorney-General  com- 
menced his  address.     He  introduced  his  subject  with  all 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCni.    347 

the  usual  oratorical  precautions,  which  promised  success; 
and,  at  the  moment  when  he  was  about  to  portray  the 
danger  of  handing  over  youth  to  teachers  professing  such 
principles,  he  fell  dead  at  the  very  feet  of  Matthew  Mole ! 
He  had  been   suddenly  seized  with  an  attack  of  apoplexy. 

This  occurrence  was  a  lesson  to  the  Parliament,  who 
oucht  to  have  been  struck  with  terror;  but  such  was  not 
the  case.  Onier  Talon  took  the  place  of  Louis  Servin  ; 
the  proceedings  were  continued,  and,  on  the  night  of  the 
13th  of  March,  a  man,  wrapped  in  a  cloak,  demanded  ad- 
mittance to  the  Professed  House,  asking  to  speak  with  the 
Father  Provincial.  It  was  the  President  de  Lamoignon. 
On  seeing  Father  Coton,  whom  he  embraced,  he  ex- 
claimed : 

"  What  a  misfortune.  Father!  what  a  misfortune  !  " 

"  The  Attorney-General  has  attained  his  object,  has  he 
not?"  asked  the  Father  Provincial,  who  surmised  the 
truth. 

"Alas!  yes.  Reverend  Father.  The  treatise  of  Father 
Santarelli,  written  and  published  in  Italy,  in  Rome,  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  and  notions  of  Rome;  that  book,  writ- 
ten and  published  by  an  Italian,  for  the  Romans  and  Ital- 
ians; that  book  is  condemned  in  France  by  the  Parliament 
of  Paris,  and  the  French  Jesuits  are  held  responsible  !  The 
Parliament  is  preparing  its  sentence  of  exile.  Father,  I 
have  come  here  secretly  to  inform  you  of  the  fact.  Car- 
dinal Richelieu  wishes  to  make  you  feel  his  power.  He 
wants  to  prove  to  you  that  your  existence  in  France  de- 
pends upon  his  will  and  pleasure;  for,  at  this  moment,  he 
concurs  with  the  Parliament,  and  desires  that  Father  San- 
tarelli's  book  be  burned  on  the  Place  de  Greve,  by  the 
public  executioner." 

Father  Coton  was  ill.  He  was  even  sufficiently  so  to 
alarm  his  friends.  The  news  thus  conveyed  to  him  ag- 
gravated his  condition.  On  the  following  day,  Matthew 
31* 


348  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Mole,  defying  the  anger  of  Richelieu,  presented  himself 
before  the  King,  recalled  to  His  Majesty  the  great  services 
rendered  to  the  Church  and  to  France  by  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  and  the  injustice  of  a  sentence  which  would  bring 
to  bear  on  the  entire  Order  the  anger  excited  by  a  work 
of  which  only  one  of  its  members  was  the  author;  and  he 
added,  "As  for  myself,  Sire,  I  declare  to  your  3Iajesty 
that  I  will  never  sanction  such  an  iniquity."  But,  Louis 
XIII,  ruled  by  his  minister,  seemed  to  possess  no  other  will 
than  his.  He  permitted  things  to  go  on  as  the  Cardinal 
saw  fit.  Santarelli's  work  was  burned,  and  the  question  of 
exile  discussed.  Several  members  of  the  Parliament  pro- 
posed, while  awaiting  the  sentence,  and  as  a  precautionary 
measure,  to  prohibit  the  Jesuits  from  preaching  and  hear- 
ing confessions.  The  senior  of  the  Counsellors,  Deslandes, 
was  astonished. 

"Why,  of  what  are  you  thinking?"  he  exclaimed. 
"Are  we,  then,  to  prohibit  the  King  and  the  Queen 
mother  confessing  to  Father  Sufiren?  And  is  it  for  us 
to  appoint  for  them  another  confessor?" 

This  outburst  showed  the  grave  Counsellors  the  absurd- 
ity of  their  proposition,  and  they  substituted  another, 
which  was  accepted — that  of  summoning  the  Provincial 
and  the  Superiors  of  the  Jesuits  before  the  bar  of  the  Par- 
liament. Fathers  Coton,  Filleau,  Brossold,  and  Armand 
accordingly  appeared,  were  interrogated,  and  ordered  to 
sign  four  articles  which  had  been  rejected  in  161-4  by  the 
States-General.  Father  Coton,  who  had  answered  all  their 
questions  with  remarkable  lucidity,  in  spite  of  his  feeble 
condition  and  serious  illness,  replied  to  the  injunction  of 
the  Parliament: 

"I  declare,  in  the  name  of  our  society,  that  we  are 
ready  to  sign  that  which  the  Society  of  the  Sorbonne  and 
the  Assembly  of  the  Clergy  themselves  sign." 

The  Parliament   found   itself  entrapped  and  strangely 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCHI.    349 

embarrassed.  What  reason  could  they  assign  for  the  sen- 
tence of  banishment  a«iainst  an  order  which  was  williriir 
to  sign  the  same  profession  of  faith  as  the  kSociety  of  the 
Sorbonne  and  the  clergy  of  France? 

On  the  18th  of  March,  the  Father  Provincial,  whom  so 
many  shocks  hurried  to  the  grave,  was  at  the  point  of 
death.  An  official  came  to  announce  to  him  the  decree 
of  the  Parliament,  and  the  dying  Jesuit,  casting  a  look 
of  resignation  and  raising  his  feeble  hands  toward  heaven, 
gave  utterance  to  these  heart-rending  words: 

"  Must  I,  then,  die  like  a  criminal  guilty  of  high  treason, 
and  as  a  disturber  of  the  public  peace,  after  having  served 
two  kings  of  France  with  so  much  fidelity  during  thirty 
years?" 

On  the  following  day,  the  celebrated  Jesuit  was  no 
more.  Richelieu-  went  to  pray  beside  his  remains,  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Paris  himself  desired  to  pronounce  the 
absolutions.  This  death  seemed  to  lull  the  storm.  Car- 
dinal Richelieu  declined  to  press  further  the  manifesta- 
tion of  his  authority  with  regard  to  the  Jesuits.  He  had 
shown  them  that  he  was  more  powerful  than  they,  in 
allowing  them  to  live,  and  to  continue  their  ordinary  la- 
bors in  France  as  they  did  elsewhere;  and,  by  the  same 
stroke,  he  proved  to  the  Parliament  and  the  University 
that  he  was,  likewise,  more  powerful  than  they.  His  po- 
litical ends  were  satisfied.  From  this  time,  his  only  care 
was  to  employ,  in  the  interests  of  the  kingdom,  the  zeal 
and  talents  of  the  holy  religious  whom  he  had  thought 
to  subjugate.  He  publicly  declared  himself  their  pro- 
tector. 

Richelieu  was,  moreover,  too  clever,  and  his  genius  of 
too  high  an  order,  not  to  appreciate,  according  to  their 
value,  the  services  which  the  Jesuits  rendered  to  France, 
as  much  by  teaching  as  by  preaching.  According  to  the 
census  of  1627,  the  number  of  their  pupils,  in  the  single 


350  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

province    of  Paris,    amounted    to    thirteen   thousand   one 
hundred  and  ninety-five. 

On  the  7th  of  March,  in  the  same  year,  1627,  the  King 
solemnly  laid  the  foundation-stone  of  the  Professed  House 
of  the  Jesuits  in  the  Rue  St.  Antoine.  He  contributed  to 
the  cost  of  its  construction,  as  did  also  the  Cardinal.  The 
College  of  Clermont,  not  meeting  the  requirements  of  the 
times,  had  to  be  demolished  and  rebuilt.  The  expense 
was  borne  by  the  city  of  Paris. 

On  the  9th  of  May,  16-41,  the  King  and  court  assisted  at 
the  mass  celebrated  by  the  Cardinal  Minister  in  the  new 
church  of  the  Jesuits,*  and  the  King,  the  Queen,  the  Secre- 
taries of  State,  all  the  princes  and  nobles,  received  holy 
communion.  It  was  impossible  to  afi"ord  the  Society  of 
Jesus  a  more  striking  proof  of  the  royal  favor,  A  few 
days  after,  Cardinal  Richelieu  and  all  the  nobles  of  the 
court  were  present  at  the  academical  exercises  in  the  Jes- 
uits' college,  with  which  the  scholastic  year  concluded. 
Armand  de  Bourbon,  Prince  of  Conti,  and  the  Prince  of 
Savoy,  Nemours,  their  pupils,  were  among  those  who  took 
part  in  the  theatrical  performances  on  the  occasion.  Such 
marked  favors  naturally  increased  the  displeasure  of  the 
members  of  the  University. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  continued  its  labors  with  indefat- 
igable zeal  and  increasing  success,  and  enrolled  among  its 
members  some  of  the  most  illustrious  personages.  Charles 
of  Lorraine,  Bishop  of  Verdun,  had  laid  aside  his  crown 
and  titles  to  clothe  himself  in  the  holy  livery  of  the  Jesuit. 
Florent  and  Francis  de  3Iontmorency  had  cast  away  all  the 
worldly  grandeur  with  which  the  noble  descendants  of  the 
first  Christian  barons  were  surrounded,  and  hastened  to  en- 
counter the  humiliations  and  persecutions  which  ever  pur 
sued  the  disciples  of  Ignatius  of  Loyola.     The  houses  of 


♦Styled,  at  present,  St.  Paul-St.  Louis,  Eue  St.  Antoine 


GENKRALSIIIP  OF   FATHER   MUTIO   VITTELLESCIII.     351 

de  "Beauvau,  de  BoufHers,  de  SufTren,  de  la  Vali^re,  de  la 
Treiiiouillo,  de  Sabran,  de  Pins,  de  Ventadour,  de  Canil- 
hac,  de  Gourgues,  etc.,  numbered,  among  the  Jesuits, 
Fathers  of  their  name.  This  is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  rea- 
sons of  the  reputation  for  power  given  to  the  Jesuits;  for 
it  was  not  in  France  alone  that  the  most  glorious  names  in 
history  placed  themselves  beneath  its  humble  banner.  All 
the  celebrities  of  Europe  concurred  in  giving  to  it  this 
reflex  of  glory  and  grandeur,  which  the  world  appreciates. 

While  the  events  just  related  transpired  at  Paris,  the 
novitiate  of  Nancy  was  witness  of  a  reconciliation,  of  which 
history  has  preserved  the  touching  and  pious  souvenir. 
Two  of  the  most  noble  and  honored  families  were  estranged 
by  one  of  those  blots  on  their  escutcheon  which,  ordinarily, 
are  not  effaced  until  the  lapse  of  several  generations.  The 
father  of  Francis  de  Gournay  had  killed,  in  a  duel,  t)ie 
father  of  Charles  d'Harcourt.  The  two  young  men  no 
longer  met  each  other  ;  but  they  were  Christians,  and  both, 
one  and  the  other,  deplored  the  enmity  existing  between 
their  families,  and  mutually  forgave  each  other,  from  their 
hearts,  the  faults  which  were  not  their  own.  One  day, 
Francis  de  Gournay  presented  himself  at  the  novitiate  of 
the  Jesuits  of  Nancy.  Charles  d'Harcourt  had  just  been 
received  there.  On  seeing  Francis,  Charles  extended  his 
arms  toward  him,  embraced  him,  and  pressed  him  to  his 
bosom,  calling  him  his  brother,  and  they  both  mingled 
their  tears  and  sorrows  together.  Charles  d'Harcourt 
urged  his  Superior  to  permit  him  to  serve  Francis  de  Gour- 
nay during  the  first  days  of  probation,  and  then,  elated 
with  his  success,  he  knelt  before  the  son  of  his  father's 
murderer  and  washed  his  feet.  This  was  a  good  begin- 
ning  in  the  society  of  heroes,  who,  from  all  parts,  con- 
fronted every  danger,  and  made  themselves  martyrs  of 
charity  or  apostolical  zeal. 

At  Douay,  they  devoted  themselves  to  the  victims  of 


852  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

famine,  and  preserved  them  from  inevitable  death.  At 
Lisle  and  at  Bethune,  they  hastened  to  the  assistance  of 
the  plague-stricken,  and  fell  beside  the  dying,  whom  they 
nursed  and  comforted.  In  1636,  in  the  single  city  of  Be- 
thune, eleven  out  of  twenty-four  of  the  Fathers  thus  met 
the  martyr's  death.  This  magnificent  self-sacrifice  did  not 
prevent  the  Protestants  from  pillaging  and  destroying  their 
college,  during  the  war  which  succeeded  the  plague. 
Heresy  had  no  longer  any  other  course  to  pursue  in  re- 
gard to  the  Jesuits.  Providence  took  upon  itself  to  repair 
this  disaster  by  the  generosity  of  the  Count  de  Nedon- 
chelles,  uncle  of  Father  Libersaert. 

In  the  south  of  France,  among  the  Fathers  who  most 
distinguished  themselves,  was  one  who  had  especially  de- 
voted himself  to  the  conversion  of  the  rural  population 
of  the  country  of  Cevennes.  It  was  the  humble  Father 
John  Francis  Regis,  whose  wonderful  apostleship  we  have 
elsewhere  related.^  About  the  same  time,  Father  Mau- 
noir  traversed  Britanny,  with  the  same  zeal  and  consoling 
success. 

V. 

The  Society  of  Jesus  had  ever  to  fight — now  against 
heresy  or  jealousy,  then  against  impiety  or  immorality. 

In  1638,  the  Lutherans  of  Utrecht  discovered  a  con- 
spiracy, the  object  of  which  was  to  deliver  the  city  to 
the  Spaniards.  Now,  the  Jesuits,  having  converted  the 
Duke  de  Bouillon,  who  had  been  Governor  of  the  place, 
and  a  bitter  heretic,  it  was  evident  that  the  principal  leaders 
of  this  conspiracy  must  be  looked  for  in  their  college. 
Father  Boddens  had  received  the  recantation  of  the  Duke 
de  Bouillon,  hence  it  was  Father  Boddens  who  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  conspiracy.     He  who  had  revealed  the  plot 

*  History  of  St.  John  Francis  de  Regis.  Bray,  66  Rue  des  Saints 
Peres,  Paris,  1862. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    353 

was  a  soldier  initiated  in  the  plan,  and  one  of  the  party. 
He  knew  all  the  accomplices,  had  given  all  their  names, 
and  not  a  single  Jesuit  was  found  on  the  list.  They 
pointed  out  to  him  the  necessity  of  compromising  the  Jes- 
uits, but  he  could  state  only  that  which  he  knew.  The 
magistrates,  nevertheless,  must  have  Jesuits ;  they  thirsted 
for  their  blood,  and  they  would  not  yield  at  any  price. 
They  promised  to  the  soldier  wealth  and  freedom,  if  he 
would  but  consent  to  accuse  Fathers  Boddens  and  Paez- 
man.  With  fear  and  trembling,  he  accepted  the  terms,  and 
said  that  he  had  spoken  of  the  conspiracy  to  those  two 
Fathers.  This  sufficed  for  the  heretics.  Summoned  to  ap- 
pear, these  holy  men  presented  themselves,  accompanied 
by  the  coadjutor,  Philip  Notting.  They  were  confronted 
with  their  accuser.  The  latter  was  embarrassed  as  to  how 
he  was  to  sustain  the  accusation.  He  could  not  answer 
the  pressingly  earnest  questions  of  the  Fathers,  and  the 
Lutherans,  becoming  enraged  at  his  hesitation,  put  a  stop 
to  them  by  causing  him  to  be  beheaded.  Being  rid  of  the 
impostor,  they  fell  upon  their  victims,  whom  they  sub- 
mitted to  the  most  horrible  tortures. 

"They  placed  them  on  four  plates  of  iron,  arranged 
crosswise,"  says  M.  Cretineau  Joly  ;  "tied  them,  hand 
and  foot,  with  chains,  mounted  with  steel  points,  which 
pierced  their  flesh,  and  fastened  their  necks  in  a  net-work 
of  lead,  furnished  with  a  triple  row  of  teeth.  Thus  placed 
and  beld,  they  were  surrounded  by  a  raging  fire.  Scarcely 
had  the  flesh  been  blistered  by  the  flame,  than  salt,  vine- 
gar, and  gunpowder  were  poured  into  their  bleeding  wounds. 
The  refinement  of  cruelty  did  not  stop  here.  They  ap- 
plied seven  lighted  torches  to  their  chests,  and  mutilated, 
one  by  one,  their  fingers  and  toes.  After  twenty-two  hours 
of  torture,  the  physicians  declared  that  life  with  the  Jes- 
uits was  more  quickly  exhausted  than  their  courage.  As 
they  had  not,  during  all  these  tortures,  avowed  any  thing. 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

they   were   condemned    to   die  by  tlie  axe  of  the  execu- 
tioner. 

"After  an  interval  of  a  few  days,  they  were  borne,  one 
by  one,  to  the  scaffold  ;  for  their  mutilated  feet  could  no 
longer  support  them.  They  were  finally  executed,  in  the 
month  of  June,  1638,  praying  to  Almighty  God  to  pardon 
those  who  had  juridically  assassinated  them," 

The  magistrates  knew,  better  than  any  one  else,  the  in- 
iquity of  such  an  execution.  Hence,  too,  the  council  of  the 
United  Provinces  threatened  the  most  severe  punishment 
against  whoever  dared  to  publish  any  thing  that  might  tend 
to  preserve  for  posterity  the  remembrance  of  the  con- 
spiracy, which  had  served  as  a  pretext  for  their  revolting 
and  sacrilegious  atrocities. 

The  month  prior  to  this,  the  Gth  of  May,  1638,  the  plague 
had  carried  off  Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres,  an  avowed 
adversary  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  prelate  left,  in 
manuscript,  a  treatise  on  Grace,  in  which  were  revived  the 
doctrines  of  Baius,  over  which  the  Jesuits  had  so  ad- 
mirably triumphed  by  bringing  Baius  and  his  disciples  to  a 
direct  retraction.  But,  for  the  sole  reason  that  the  Jes- 
uits had  remained  victors  in  the  discussion,  their  adversaries 
had  promised  themselves  revenge. 

Cornelius  Jansenius,  a  pupil  of  the  Jesuits  in  the 
College  of  Louvain,  had  manifested  a  desire  of  entering 
the  society.  The  Superiors,  not  perceiving  in  him  suffi- 
cient evidences  of  a  vocation  for  a  religious  life,  had  re- 
fused to  receive  him.  His  self-love  being  thus  wounded, 
he  quitted  the  college  to  enter  the  university,  where 
James  Baius,  nephew  of  the  celebrated  Chancellor,  pro- 
fessed the  erroneous  doctrines  of  his  uncle — doctrines 
which  were  condemned  by  the  Holy  See,  and  of  which 
the  author  himself  had  admitted  and  abjured  the  errors. 
Jansenius  had,  therefore,  adopted  the  doctrine  of  Baius 
through  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  the  Society  of  Jesus, 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCIII.    355 

^hlch,  after  having  so  courageously  combated  them,  from 
their  first  appearance  by  the  learning  and  erudition  of 
I5ellarmine  and  Tolet,  again  opposed  them,  when  the  at- 
tempt was  again  made  to  sustain  them,  and  to  incite  the 
young  to  revolt  against  the  authority  by  which  they  had 
been  condemned. 

In  his  treatise  on  Grace,  the  Bishop  of  Ypres  advanced 
these  doctrines;  but,  not  wishing  to  die  as  a  heretic  be- 
fore men,  which  would  have  frustrated  the  object  in  view, 
his  work  remained  unpublished,  and  he  contented  him- 
self with  communicating  it,  by  fragments,  to  his  most 
devoted  disciple,  Duvergier  de  Hauranne.  The  latter 
spoke  mysteriously  of  it  to  the  public,  in  terms  calcu- 
lated to  create  a  desire  for  its  publication  ;  but  the  secret 
had  to  be  closely  kept,  for,  as  he  declared,  this  work  was 
to  effect  a  complete  religious  revolution.  At  the  end  of 
the  book,  which  was  entitled  Augusfinus,  the  author  de- 
clared that  he  wished  to  live  and  die  in  communion  with 
the  Roman  Church  ;  that  he  submitted  the  work  to  her 
approbation,  and  that  he  accepted,  retracted,  condemned, 
and  anathematized  all  that  which  she  decided  he  should 
accept,  retract,  condemn,  and  anathematize.  This  pro- 
testation did  not  prevent  him  from  recommending  to  Du- 
vergier great  caution  in  the  choice  of  the  persons  to 
whom  he  confided  his  doctrines,  and  the  book  destined  to 
make  them  known  to  the  world. 

It  is  not  unnecessary  to  remark  that  Duver.gier  de 
Hauranne,  better  known  as  the  Abbe  de  Saint-Cyran, 
onl}'^  addressed  himself  to  the  adversaries  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  Jansenius,  however,  desiring  to  obtain  the 
support  of  a  religious  order,  engaged  his  agent  to  feel 
the  way.  "It  would  not  be  unimportant,"  said  he,  "if 
my  work  could  be  seconded  by  some  such  society." 
Saint-Cyran  knew  that  he  had  been  detected  and  rejected 
by  Peter  de  Berulle,  General  of  the  Oratorians,  and  he, 
32 


356  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

in  like  manner,  endeavored  to  influence  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul.  He  was  not  aware  that  this  great  apostle  of  char- 
ity would  never  have  thought  of  founding  the  Congrega- 
tion of  the  Priests  of  the  Mission,  if  the  Society  of  Jesus 
had  been  in  a  position  to  aid  him  in  the  country  missions, 
and  that  it  was  in  consequence  of  the  refusal  of  the  Jes- 
uits, whose  number  was  too  limited  to  suffice  for  all,  that 
he,  aided  by  their  wise  counsels  and  experience,  had  es- 
tablished the  society  to  which  was  given  the  title  of 
Lazarists. 

In  ignorance  of  this  intimacy  of  St,  Vincent  de  Paul 
with  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Saint-Cyran 
had  sought  to  make  a  friend  of  him,  and,  when  he  thought 
he  had  gained  his  confidence,  he  said  to  him  : 

"  God  has  given  and  still  gives  me  great  light.  He 
has  revealed  to  me  that,  for  the  last  five  or  six  hundred 
years,  there  has  been  no  Church.  Antecedent  to  that 
period,  the  Church  was  like  unto  a  great  river  of  trans- 
parent waters  ;  but  that  which  now  seems  to  be  the  Church 
is  nothing  but  mire." 

"  Have  a  care,"  replied  the  saint.  "All  the  heresiarchs 
had  recourse  to  that  pretext  to  establish  their  errors." 

"Calvin,"  rejoined  Saint-Cyran,  "did  not  do  badly  in 
what  he  undertook,  but  he  has  defended  himself  badly."  ^ 

St.  Vincent  was  sufficiently  enlightened  as  to  the  views 
of  the  disciple  of  Jansenius.  He  avoided  him,  and  re- 
garded him  as  a  heretic  who  would  soon  throw  off  the 
mask.  Being  unable  to  make  converts  among  the  relig- 
ious, whose  reputation  of  holiness  and  learning  might 
have  aided  his  designs,  Saint-Cyran  had  recourse  to  tho 
Abbey  of  Port  Royal.  The  Abbess,  Angellque  Arnauld, 
daughter  of  the  well-known  enemy  of  the  Jesuits,  exer- 
cised great  influence  over  her  community  and  over  many 

Tli~    ■  ■  ■  — —    —  ■ 

*  Letter  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCHI.      357 

persons  attached  to  the  court.  The  nuns  were  readily- 
influenced  by  Saint-Cyran,  and,  thus  much  gained,  the 
apostle  of  the  new  doctrines  labored  with  so  much  energy 
and  ability,  that  he  succeeded  in  uniting  several  young 
men  of  great  intelligence  and  distinguished  talent,  who, 
under  the  denomination  of  Solitawes  de  Fort  Royal  estab- 
lished themselves  in  the  abbey,  which  the  nuns  exchanged 
for  an  establishment  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Jacques,  at 
Paris.  There  they  devoted  themselves  to  study  and  to 
preparing  books  for  the  young  ;  for,  the  Jesuits  having 
taken  possession  of  education,  it  was  important  to  enter 
into  rivalry  with  them.  Thus  was  founded  the  College  of 
Port  Royal.  The  Jesuits  urged  the  frequentation  of  the 
sacraments,  while  the  Solitaires  of  Port  Koyal  pursued 
the  opposite  course. 

The  morals  of  the  Jesuits  are  gentle  and  attractive, 
like  the  Gospel ;  those  of  the  Solitaires  of  Port  Royal 
were  dry,  indifferent,  and  severe.  It  was  necessary  to  be 
opposed,  on  all  points,  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  in  opin- 
ions as  well  as  in  practice,  in  order  to  be  worthy  of  the 
Society  of  Port  Royal-des-Champs.  And,  indeed,  the 
opposition  was  important,  if  we  judge  it  from  the  view 
which  the  Solitaires  entertained  of  themselves.  Antoine 
Lemaitre,  a  celebrated  attorney,  and  nephew  of  Angelique 
Arnauld,  enticed  by  his  aunt  to  the  seclusion  of  Port 
Royal,  wrote  as  follows  to  a  priest  named  Antoine  de 
Singlin  : 

"An  instance  has  not  been  known,  for  perhaps  more  than  a 
ceiituj'y,  of  a  man,  in  the  position  and  state  in  which  I  was — ex- 
posed, git  the  flower  of  my  age,  to  the  corruption  of  the  court,  pos- 
sessing all  the  prestige  of  birth  and  eloquence;  my  reputation 
made,  my  property  immense,  my  profession  the  most  honorable, 
my  fortune  increased,  and  my  hopes  for  the  future  most  reason- 
able— who  has  suddenly  relinquished  all  these  possessions  and 
prospects,  broken   all   these  ties,  made  himself  poor,  whereas  he 


358  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

might  have  labored  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth  ;  who  has  em- 
braced austerities,  whereas  he  might  have  revelled  in  pleasures; 
selected  solitude,  when  he  might  have  been  surrounded  by  clients 
and  friends;  condemned  himself  to  perpetual  silence,  instead  of 
being  listened  to  and  applauded.  Nevertheless,  the  age  is  so  little 
given  to  spirituality,  that  this  miracle,  although  greater  and 
more  rare  than  that  of  causing  the  blind  to  see  and  the  dumb  to 
speak,  is  considered  only  extraordinary,  when  it  should  be  recog- 
nized as  supernatural." 

The  words  of  Saint-Cyran  to  St.  Vincent  de  Paul — Cal- 
vin executed  well  whatever  he  undertook^  hut  he  was  unahle 
to  defend  himself- — and  the  revolting  pride  in  the  few  lines 
from  Le  Maitre,  sujficiently  explain  the  character  of  Jan- 
senism. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  Jansenius,  his  friends 
hastened  to  give  his  Augustinus  to  the  press.  The  Jesuits, 
being  advised  of  the  fact,  informed  the  Internuncio,  to 
whom  they  made  known  the  nature  of  the  work,  and  its 
publication  was  forbidden  by  the  Holy  See.  But  the  Jansen- 
ists,  regardless  of  the  interdict,  issued  the  book,  in  1640. 

Then  commenced  that  interminable  discussion  which 
exercised  for  so  long  the  learned  of  both  sides.  The  Pope 
had  designated  the  partisans  o^  Augustinus^  Jansenists]  the 
latter  called  their  adversaries  Moliiiists,  because,  said  they, 
their  doctrine  is  that  of  Molina.  The  Jansenists  of  France 
and  Belgium  declared  their  submission  to  the  Holy  See, 
but  they  would  not  listen  to  any  of  its  remonstrances;  and 
all  its  paternal  efforts  being  exhausted,  without  success, 
the  court  of  Bome  sent  forth  a  crushing  condemnation  of 
the  Augustinus,  on  the  Gth  of  March,  1(342.  The  Jansen- 
ists did  not  respect  this  condemnation,  under  the  specious 
pretext  that  the  Jesuits  had  caused  it  to  be  issued.  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  wrote  to  the  Abbe  d'Orgny  as  follows  : 

"The  Abbe  de  Saint-Cyran  has  admitted  to  Monsieur  de  Cha- 
vigny,  the  Secretary  of  State,  that  the  object  of  the  partisans  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLi;SCHI.    359 

the  Bishop  of  Ypres  was  to  disgrace  the  Jesuits  on  the  dogma  and 
administration  of  the  sacraments." 

It  was  to  this  end  that  Antoine  Arnauld  published,  in 
1643,  his  book  entitled  De  la  Frequente  Communion,  the 
appearance  of  which  excited  a  fresh  controversy  and 
augmented  the  anger  in  the  camps  of  the  opposing  parties, 
and  of  which  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  in  writing  to  the  Abbe 
d'Orgny,  says  : 

"If  this  work  has  served  to  render  a  hundred  more  reverential 
as  regards  the  sacraments,  there  are,  at  least,  ten  thousand  whom  it 
has  injured,  by  estranging  them  from  them  entirely.  Several  of 
the  pastors  of  Paris  complain  of  it.  At  St.  Sulpice  there  are  three 
thousand  communions  less  than  usual.  At  St.  Nicholas  du  Char- 
donnet,  fifteen  hundred  persons  have  neglected  this  religious 
duty,  and  the  like  has  occurred  elsewhere." 

This  book,  publicly  censured  by  the  clergy,  the  Society 
of  the  Sorbonne,  and  the  University,  with  the  exception 
of  some  bishops  drawn  into  the  Jansenist  party,  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  court  of  Rome  as  tending  to  withdraw  souls 
from  the  frequentation  of  that  sacrament  in  which  they 
find  strength  and  life.  The  Abbe  of  Saint-Cyran  had  so 
well  trained  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal,  in  this  respect,  that 
the  Abbess,  one  day,  wrote  him  :  "  There  are  some  of  our 
daughters  who  have  not  been  to  confession  for  fifteen 
months."  This  ardent  promulgator  of  the  doctrines  of 
Jansenius,  this  bitter  enemy  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  was 
carried  off  by  a  stroke  of  apoplexy  during  the  exercise  of 
his  guilty  functions,  on  the  11th  of  October,  1643. 

A  few  days  before,  on  the  25th  of  September,  Prince 
John  Casimir,  who  was  soon  to  have  ascended  the  throne 
of  Poland,  received,  with  great  happiness,  the  holy  habit 
of  that  Society  of  Jesus  against  which  were  leagued  all  the 
merciless  enemies  of  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See. 
32* 


3G0  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

VI. 

At  Malta,  it  was  by  immorality  that  the  Jesuits  were 
attacked.  While  the  Jansenists  in  France  and  Bel'_num 
complained  of  their  excessive  indulgence,  and  increased 
the  number  of  their  pamphlets  on  what  they  termed  the 
loose  Tnorallty  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Knights  of  Malta  re- 
volted against  what  they  considered  the  austerity  of  the 
same  Jesuits. 

Idleness,  which  is  ever  dangerous  to  the  soul,  had  led 
the  knights  into  culpable  irregularities.  In  proportion  as 
they  proved  themselves  brave  and  full  of  faith  when  the 
Infidels  compelled  them  to  cruise  on  the  seas,  or  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff  called  them  to  the  defense  of  the  Church, 
so,  also,  did  they  fall  away  from  their  discipline,  and  allow 
themselves  to  be  enticed  and  enervated  by  pleasures,  when 
they  had  laid  down  their  arms  and  lived  in  the  shelter  of 
their  fortified  island. 

In  1639,  the  Grand  Master,  Paul  Lascaris,  who  desired 
to  bring  back  his  knights  to  that  Christian  life  imposed 
upon  them  by  the  statutes  of  the  Order,  had  employed 
strenuous  measures,  which  met  with  an  ill  reception.  He 
had  objected,  in  particular,  to  a  theatrical  representation 
prepared  for  the  Carnival,  the  characters  in  which  appeared 
to  him  to  be  such  as  could  not  be  tolerated.  The  knights, 
displeased  at  this  prohibition,  protested,  insisted,  and  en- 
treated Lascaris  to  withdraw  this  prohibition. 

"I  have  only  put  forth  this  edict,"  said  the  Grand  Mas- 
ter, "in  order  that  we  may  conform  to  that  which  is  com- 
manded us  by  religion  and  by  our  rules.  If  Father  Cassia 
states  that  I  may,  in  conscience,  authorize  such  an  entertain- 
ment, I  will  not  oppose  it." 

Father  Cassia  was  consulted,  and  said  that  he  could  not 
approve  the  proposed  representation.  The  irritation  in- 
creased.    The    young    knights,   becoming  excited,    trans- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATIIEIl  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    3G1 

ferred  their  displeasure  from  the  Grand  Master  to  the 
Jesuits,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  idea  of  the 
prohibition  emanated  from  the  Fathers.  The  Grand  Mas- 
ter confided  in  the  society;  therefore  it  was  Father  Cassia 
who  had  induced  him  to  issue  the  decree.  The  opinion 
of  one  Jesuit  was,  necessarily,  that  of  the  society,  of  which 
all  the  members  were  too  severe,  and  this  severity  was  in- 
tolerable. There,  at  least,  their  morality  was  not  taxed 
with  laxity.  The  public  agitation  continuing  to  increase, 
a  young  knight,  named  Salvatici,  constituted  himself  leader 
of  those  in  revolt.  He  organized  a  sacrilegious  outbreak, 
and,  a  few  days  after,  several  knights  were  seen  passing 
through  the  streets,  in  the  holy  habit  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  exclaiming  that  the  Jesuits  were  the  opponents  of 
all  amusements,  that  they  were  the  originators  of  the  edict 
issued  by  the  Grand  Master,  and  that  their  austerity  and 
severity  could  no  longer  be  tolerated.  Lascaris  ordered 
the  arrest  of  Salvatici,  and  his  confinement  in  the  Fortress 
of  St.  Elmo  ;  but  his  partisans  had  recourse  to  arms,  res- 
cued the  prisoner,  and,  hastening  to  the  college  of  the 
Jesuits,  ransacked  it  from  top  to  bottom,  arrested  the 
eleven  Fathers  who  resided  there,  and  conveyed  them  on 
board  a  vessel  about  to  set  sail  for  Sicily.  The  Grand 
Master  wrote  to  the  Pope,  and  Urban  VIII  ordered-the 
Jesuits  to  be  reinstated  in  their  house  at  Malta.  Louis 
XIII,  King  of  France,  also  wrote,  demanding,  in  the 
strongest  terms,  the  reparation  of  this  outrage,  and,  on  the 
12th  of  December,  the  good  Fathers  again  entered  on  pos- 
session of  their  college  amid  the  applause  of  the  inhabit- 
ants and  even  of  the  knights  themselves.  Nevertheless, 
at  the  approach  of  the  Carnival  of  1G40,  a  threatening 
fermentation  agitated  the  public  mind.  The  Knight  Sal- 
vatici renewed  his  entreaties  to  the  Grand  Master,  and 
the  latter,  in  order  to  avoid  a  serious  insurrection,  accorded 
him  permission  to  act  the  piece  which  had  been  forbidden 


9 

362  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  preceding  year.  Salvatici,  thus  triumphing,  reported 
the  news  to  his  young  brothers-in-arms,  who  rejoiced  at 
the  result;  but  the  people  were  alarmed. 

"The  good  Jesuit  Fathers,"  said  they,  "condemned  this 
entertainment,  and  the  knights  expelled  them,  in  order  to 
avenge  themselves  of  their  severity.  Who  knows,  now,  if 
God  will  not  interfere  to  avenge  himself  on  the  knights?'' 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  performance,  in  which 
Salvatici  had  to  sustain  an  important  part,  he  went  to  the 
theatre.  The  Knight  Robert  Solaris,  also  one  of  the 
actors,  picked  a  quarrel  with  him.  The  dispute  waxed 
warm.  Salvatici  felt  himself  offended,  and  placed  his  hand 
on  the  hilt  of  his  sword ;  but  Solaris  perceived  the  move- 
ment, and,  quicker  than  lightning,  stabbed  his  opponent 
through  and  through  !     The  Knight  Salvatici  died  before 

CO  o 

making  his  appearance  on  the  stage,  and  the  piece  could 
not  be  produced. 

"It  is  the  judgment  of  God!"  exclaimed  the  people. 
"We  said  that  God  would  interpose." 

Of  these  events  evil-disposed  minds  had  only  seen  one 
fact,  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  by  the  Knights  of  Malta, 
and  this  fact  they  turned  to  account  in  various  ways,  ac- 
cording to  their  different  theories.  Upon  one  point  only 
did  they  agree,  that  of  calumniating  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

In  England  the  persecution  continued.  The  death  of 
James  Stuart  had  not  diminished  the  zeal  of  the  Puri- 
tans. Far  from  it.  They  unmasked  themselves,  so  as 
to  show  that  it  was  not  only  Popery  that  they  sought 
to  destroy,  but  that  it  was  authority  itself  that  embar- 
rassed them,  and  which  they  hoped  to  overthrow.  Her- 
esy has  never  had  any  other  object  in  view.  While  it 
sent  the  Jesuits  to  the  scaffold,  it  refused  common  ne- 
cessities to  Charles  I,  its  sovereign,  and  kept  him  in  a 
state  of  the  most  humiliating  dependence.  The  Jesuits 
were  juridically  banished  from  Great  Britain;    but  they 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCUI.    363 

did  not  forsake  it.  They  desired  to  preserve  the  faith 
among  the  Catholics  who  had  remained  true,  and  they 
continued  to  dwell  there,  in  concealment  and  disguise,  ex- 
ercising their  holy  ministry  only  in  secret  or  in  the  dark- 
ness of  the  niiiht.  All  those  who  were  discovered  were 
first  put  to  the  torture,  and  then  led  to  death. 

AYhen  Father  Corby  was  arrested,  the  Ambassador  of 
Germany  proposed  to  exchange  him  for  a  Scotch  prisoner; 
but  the  Jesuit  refused.  He  preferred  martyrdom.  Ilis 
execution  was  fixed  for  the  14th  of  September,  1644.  On 
the  eve,  at  night,  the  President  de  Belli^vre,  French  am- 
bassador, the  Duchess  de  Guise,  and  the  Marchioness  de 
Brossay  visited  him  in  his  cell,  wishing  to  have  the  con- 
solation of  hearing  the  last  words  of  the  martyr,  and  re- 
ceiving his  last  blessing.  He  heard  their  confessions, 
offered  up  the  holy  sacrifice,  administered  holy  commun- 
ion to  his  pious  visitors,  and  passed  the  night  with  them 
in  prayer.  He  then  gave  them  a  last  blessing,  while  they 
touchingly  embraced  his  manacled  hands,  after  which  he 
left  them,  to  proceed  to  the  place  of  execution.  The  am- 
bassador alone  accompanied  him  to  the  scaff'old. 

Fathers  Richard  Bradley  and  John  Grose  had  been,  for 
a  long  time,  confined  in  the  dungeons  of  Manchester  and 
Lincoln,  deprived  of  air,  light,  nourishment,  and  exercise, 
and  loaded  with  chains.  On  the  30th  of  January,  1645, 
Richard  Bradley  succumbed  to  these  excessive  cruelties. 
On  the  1st  of  February,  Father  Henry  Moore,  a  prisoner 
in  the  Tower  of  London,  was  accompanied  to  the  scaff'old 
by  the  French  ambassador.  The  day  before  his  execu- 
tion, the  representatives  of  all  the  Catholic  sovereigns 
hastened  to  prostrate  themselves  at  his  feet,  there,  with 
tears  of  veneration,  to  beg  his  precious  blessing;  and  the 
President  de  Belli^vre  considered  it  an  honor  to  receive 
it  again  at  the  last  moment,  at  the  instant  when  heaven 
itself  was  opened   to  receive  the   holy   martyr.     Twenty 


364  HISTORY   OP   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

days  after,  Father  Grose  expired  in  his  dungeon,  at  Lin- 
coln. 

At  the  same  time,  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  attacked,  at 
Rome,  by  a  hand  which  should  have  been  above  suspicion. 
Our  original  intention  was  to  have  passed  over  this  fact  in 
silence;  but  an  Italian  priest,  believing  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  allude  to  it  from  the  pulpit,  in  one  of  the  principal 
churches  in  Paris,  quite  recently,  and  having  dwelt  upon 
the  calumnies  of  an  author  who  was  the  enemy  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  we  will  transcribe  from  M,  Cretineau 
Joly,  who  has  personally  verified  all  the  documents,  and 
who  clearly  proves  that  Tosetti's  work  is  a  tissue  of  false- 
hoods. The  preacher  to  whom  we  refer  spoke  in  the 
native  language  of  Tosetti,  it  is  true,  but  many  of  the 
Parisians  understand  and  speak  Italian. 

"Shortly  after  the  order  Delle  Scuole  Pie  was  estab- 
lished," says  M.  Cretineau  Joly,  "it  pleased  some  mem- 
bers of  that  order  to  foment  troubles  against  the  au- 
thority of  Joseph  Calasanzio,  their  holy  founder.  Father 
Mario  Sozzi  and  Stefano  Cherubini  degli  Angeli  placed 
themselves  at  the  head  of  those  in  revolt.  By  means  of 
deception  and  imposture,  they  excited  public  opinion,  and 
succeeded  in  misleading  it.  Their  intrigue  was  so  adroitly 
planned,  that  Calasanzio  found  himself  summoned  before  the 
Inquisition,  deprived  of  his  title  of  General,  and  prohibited 
from  opening  new  houses.  A  religious,  named  Augustin 
Ubaldini,  was  appointed  Visitor  of  the  Order,  in  which 
dissension  was  now  rife.  Ubaldini  made  himself  ac- 
quainted with  the  true  state  of  affairs.  He  proclaimed 
the  innocence  of  the  founder  and  condemned  the  rebels. 
Then,  after  having  rendered  justice  to  all,  he  retired,  wea- 
ried with  the  hostilities  which  were  excited  ao;ainst  him. 

"The  cause  was  still  pending,  when,  by  a  brief,  dated 
May  9,  1643,  Urban  VIII  put,  in  the  place  of  Ubaldini, 
Father   Sylvester    Pietra-Santa,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER    MUTIO   VITTELLESCHI.    305 

Pletra-Santa  enjoyed,  at  that  time,  at  Rome,  a  reputation 
which  he  had  gained  by  his  virtues  and  learning.  He  en- 
tered on  his  task;  but  Mario  Sozzi,  who  had  usurped  the 
functions  of  Superior  of  the  Scuole  Pie,  had  taken  meas- 
ures to  prevent  the  manifestation  of  the  truth.  He  had 
banished  all  the  religious  who  were  faithful  to  their  legit- 
imate Superior.  Those  who  had  been  content  with  dis- 
approving the  actions  of  the  usurper  had  shared  the  same 
fate.  Pietra-Santa  was  not  disheartened,  notwithstanding 
so  many  obstacles.  It  was  easy  for  him  to  judge  which 
side  was  right.  His  conscience  was  enlightened,  and  he 
wished  to  enlighten  those  of  the  Pontiff  and  of  the  Inqui- 
sition. He  prepared  three  statements,  in  all  of  which  he 
sought  to  point  out  that  St.  Joseph  Calasanzio  had  not  a 
single  reproach  to  make  to  himself,  and  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  reinstate  him  in  his  functions,  and  thus  preserve  to 
the  Church  a  useful  and  holv  order. 

'•These  facts  and  declarations  were  then,  and  still  are,  of 
public  notoriety  at  Rome.  In  1753,  when  the  first  symp- 
toms of  the  destruction  of  the  Jesuits  began  to  be  felt, 
Father  Urban  Tosetti,  of  the  Scuole  Pie,  did  not  hesitate, 
when  publishing  an  abridgment  of  the  life  of  St.  Joseph 
Calasanzio,  to  represent  Pietra-Santa  as  the  cause  of  the 
persecutions  which  the  founder  of  the  Scuole  Pie  had  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  his  brethren.  Tosetti  had  not  a 
single  proof  to  adduce,  but  he  invented  some.  He  shielded 
these,  his  calumnies,  behind  the  process  of  the  canonization 
of  the  saint,  in  order  the  better  to  deceive  those  men  who 
have  neither  the  time  nor  the  means  of  consulting  original 
sources.  The  author  knowingly  told  an  untruth,  and  his 
falsehood  was  accepted  by  credulity,  ignorance,  and  dis- 
honesty. Tosetti  supported  his  imputations  by  certain 
documents.  We  have  consulted  the  very  passages  to 
which  he  refers,  and  from  these  we  have  derived  the  most 
conclusive  justification  of  the  Jesuit, 


o 


66  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 


"It  would  occup}^  too  much  space  here  to  enumerate  all 
the  frauds  counnitted  by  the  author  of  the  Abridgment  of 
the  Life  of  St.  Joseph  Calasanzio^  (edition-  of  1753,  printed 
at  Rome,  by  John  Zempel).  A  few  examples  will  more 
than  suffice  to  convince  the  most  prejudiced  minds. 

"  In  book  lY,  chapter  III,  page  156,  of  his  work,  Tosetti 
asserts  that  Father  Pietra-Santa,  making  common  cause 
with  the  disturbers,  endeavored  to  oppress  the  holy  founder 
and  bring  about  the  abolition  of  the  Sciiole  Pie.  A  little 
further  on,  Tosetti  affirms  that  the  accounts  written  by 
Pietra-Santa  testify  to  his  attempts  upon  that  point. 

"  The  summary  for  the  year  1714  is  before  us.  At  page 
24  will  be  found  the  authentic  narrative  of  Father  Pietra- 
Santa,  divided  into  fifteen  sections.  It  is  the  panegyric  of 
the  Order  of  the  Scuole  Pie ;  and  the  formally  expressed 
desire  of  the  Jesuit  is,  that  the  Cardinals  would  reinstate 
Joseph  Calasanzio  in  his  office  of  General.  At  page  36 
will  be  found  a  letter  of  Pietra-Santa,  in  which  he  declares 
that  '  Calasanzio  is  a  most  worthy  religious;  that  his  inten- 
tions are  most  holy,  and  his  morals  most  deserving  of  com- 
mendation.' Nor  does  the  Jesuit  stop  here.  He  says, 
further,  'that  he  has  written  a  memorial  praying  for  the 
reinstatement  of  the  founder,  and  has  entreated  the  Car- 
dinals, composing  the  Congregation  charged  with  the  cause 
of  the  Scuole  Pie^  to  act  in  accordance  therewith.' 

"  On  page  17,  of  the  summary  of  1719,  are  classified  the 
acts  of  the  Congregations  of  Cardinals,  and,  in  every  place, 
it  is  found  that  Pietra-Santa  strongly  urges  'that  the  or- 
der should  not  be  abolished,  and  that  the  General  should 
be  reinstated  in  his  office.' 

"  In  following,  step  by  step,  Tosetti's  misrepresentations, 
the  only  conclusion  that  can  be  come  to  is,  that  those 
who  sided  with  the  cause  of  St.  Joseph  Calasanzio  make 
use  of  the  words  of  Pietra-Santa  to  prove  the  heroism  of 
the  virtues  of  him  whose  life  the  Jesuit  had  been  charged 


GENEllALSlIir  OF  FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCIII.     oG7 

with  ealuiuiiiatiiig.  It  was  upon  the  statements  of  tlic 
same  Jesuit  that  they  relied  to  refute  the  '•Promoter  of 
the  Faith:  ^^ 

"In  the  fourth  book,  chapter  VI,  page  176,  Tosctti  pre- 
tends that  Father  Pietra-Santa  proposed  to  reduce  the 
Older  of  the  Scuole  Fie  to  a  congregation,  and  the  an- 
nalist points  out  the  document  in  which  this  writing  has 
been  preserved.  It  is,  says  he,  at  page  25  of  the  Sum- 
mary of  171J).  This  document  is  still  in  existence;  but, 
on  the  first  page,  it  will  be  found  that  it  was  composed 
by  Father  Stephen  Cherubini,  a  religious  belonging  to 
the  Scuole  Fie.  This  proof  furnishes  something  still 
more  peremptory.  The  pamphlet  in  question  is  refuted 
on  the  margin,  and  the  refutation  is  taken  from  the  ac- 
counts and  writings  of  Pietra-Santa  on  that  affair. 

"•According  to  the  text  itself  of  the  process  of  canoniza- 
tion, Mario  Sozzi,  Cherubini,  and  other  members  of  the 
Scuole  Fie,  were  the  only  persecutors  of  Joseph  Calasan- 
zio.  These  records  are  as  authentic  as  history  itself. 
This,  however,  has  not  prevented  Tosetti  and  his  follow- 
ers from  accusing  a  Jesuit  of  an  act  which  he  was  the 
first  to  condemn  and  denounce." 

Vlt. 

Daifoosama,  Emperor  of  Japan,  died  on  June  1,  1616, 
leaving  to  his  son  Xogun  a  crown  which  he  had  usurped. 
This  change  of  rulers,  for  awhile,  put  a  stop  to  the  per- 
secution of  the  Christians  ;  but  the  missionaries  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  while  they  profited  by  this  interval  of 
quiet  to  visit  these  colonies,  were  extremely  prudent,  in 
order  not  to  excite  the  anger  of  the  Bonzes,  w^ho,  in  their 
untiring   watchfulness,   never   lost    sight    of   them.       The 

*  This  is  the  title  of  the  one  who,  in  the  process  of  canonization, 
officially  resists  the  beatilicalion   of  the   saint.     He   is   humorouslj' 
called  the  ''Devil's  Advocate."— Tr. 
33 


368  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

missionaries  of  the  other  orders  blamed  the  prudence  of 
the  Jesuits.  They  considered  it  incompatible  with  the 
zeal  with  which  they  felt  themselves  animated,  and  they 
refused  to  be  bound  by  such  conduct.  The  Jesuits  fore- 
saw that  the  storm  would  soon  burst. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year,  a  Mexican  vessel  arrived 
at  Nangasaki,  and  landed  twenty-four  heroic  Franciscans 
on  those  shores  which  had  so  often  been  moistened  by 
Christian  blood.  A  report  had  spread  in  Mexico  that 
the  Spanish  had  entered  into  a  treaty  of  commerce  with 
Xoaun,  and  that  all  missionaries  of  their  nation  would 
be  allowed  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Japan,  on  the  sole 
condition  that  they  did  not  belong  to  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
The  Franciscans,  carried  away  by  their  zeal,  had  not  taken 
time  to  assure  themselves  of  the  truth  of  this  report. 
They  embarked  on  the  first  vessel  sailing  to  the  Chinese 
waters  and  Japan,  and  landed  at  Nangasaki,  a  neutral 
city,  open  to  foreigners,  who  were  drawn  thither  for  the 
purpose  of  commerce. 

Xogun,  alarmed  at  their  number,  as  much  as  by  their 
appearance,  doubted  not  but  that  they  were  sent  by  the 
Spanish  to  prepare  for  the  subjugation  of  the  Japanese, 
and  he  issued  a  decree  which  condemned  to  death  all 
subjects  of  the  Emperor  who  might  be  rash  enough  to 
give  shelter  to  a  missionary.  This  penalty  was  even  to 
extend  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  ten  houses  nearest 
that  in  which  an  apostle  of  the  Gospel  might  take  refuge. 
The  Jesuits  had,  from  that  moment,  no  other  shelter  than 
the  forests  and  ravines.  They  exercised  their  ho}y  call- 
ing only  in  secrecy,  under  a  disguise  the  most  likely  to 
divert  the  attention  of  the  Bonzes,  and  they  counseled 
their  neophytes  to  use  the  greatest  moderation.  The 
Franciscans,  on  the  contrary,  fearing  to  compromise  their 
ponscience  by  submitting  to  this  line  of  prudence,  openly 
braved    the    imperial    anger.      Xogun    immediately  gave 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIU    VITTELLESCIII.    3G9 

orders  to  Sancho,  the  apostate  King  of  Omura,  to  have 
the  European  Bonzes  at  Nangasaki  imprisoned.  A  Jes- 
uit, Father  Juan  Machado,  and  a  Franciscan,  Peter  of  the 
Ascension,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  agents  of  Sancho, 
and,  on  the  21st  of  May,  1G17,  they  were  beheaded. 
Three  days  after,  a  Dominican  and  an  Augustinian  friar 
erected  a  chapel,  and  there  celebrated  the  holy  sacrifice 
of  the  mass.  They,  too,  were  executed  without  delay. 
A  few  others,  imitators  of  this  excess  of  zeal,  suffered  a 
like  penalty.  The  Jesuits,  ever  prudent  when  the  welfare 
of  souls  and  the  greater  glory  of  God  imposed  upon  them 
the  sacrifice  of  that  martyrdom  which  they  had  come  to 
find  and  to  merit,  always  visited  the  Christians  in  secret, 
and  found  means  of  increasing  the  number  prodigiously. 
The  Pagans,  marvelling  at  the  constancy  of  their  faith 
in  presence  of  the  threats  of  the  Emperor,  wished  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  that  religion  which  had  already 
produced  so  many  martyrs;  and  Almighty  God  second- 
ing, by  His  all-powerful  grace,  the  explanations  given  to 
them,  they  solicited  the  grace  of  becoming  His  children 
and  those  of  His  Church,  in  order  that  they,  also,  might 
have  the  happiness  of  dying  for  Jesus  Christ,  who  had 
died  for  them.  To  these  fervent  converts,  thirstins:  for 
tortures,  the  Fathers  recommended  prudence,  above  all,  in 
order  not  to  endanger  or  impair  the  progress  of  Christian- 
ity, by  provoking  an  excessive  persecution,  which  might 
annihilate  it:  for  the  martyrs  succeeded  each  other,  with- 
out intermission,  in  the  dungeons  and  at  the  place  of  ex- 
ecution. Father  Spinola  was  kept  concealed  in  the  house 
of  a  Portu2:uese,  at  Nansjasaki.  Beino;  discovered,  in  the 
month  of  August,  1619,  w^ith  the  coadjutor  Ambrosio 
Fernandez,  both  were  chained  and  taken  before  the  Gov- 
ernor. The  time  of  prudence  was  past  for  the  valiant 
soldier  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  that  of  heroism  had 
arrived.      He    appeared    before  his  judge  with  a  serene 


370  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

countenance  and  a  bumble  but  firm  demeanor.  After  an 
examination,  wbicb  left  no  hope  of  vanquishing  the  heroes, 
the  Governor  had  them  conveyed  to  prison  with  two 
Dominicans,  who  had  been  arrested  the  same  day.  On 
beholding  their  prison,  the  missionaries  commenced  in- 
toning the  Te  Deum,  and,  when  arrived  within  those  walls, 
which  they  hoped  never  to  quit  but  to  meet  their  death, 
thev  heard  two  other  voices  answerinj::  their  own,  and 
singing,  in  like  manner,  the  canticle  of  gratitude  and  love. 
These  were  two  religious — one  a  Franciscan,  the  other  a 
Dominican — who  had  been  confined  for  a  year  in  this 
place  of  torment,  and  who  received,  with  accents  of  joy 
and  thanksgiving,  the  companions  of  their  captivity. 
Meeting  each  other  face  to  face,  their  canticles  concluded 
in  a  mutual  embrace  of  love  and  charity. 

The  Governor  of  Nangasaki  had  a  prison  erected  for  the 
missionaries,  of  which  he  himself  had  furnished  the  plan, 
and  the  sight  of  which  he  hoped  would  deter  and  dis- 
hearten the  European  Bonzes,  and  disgust  them  with  the 
apostleship  of  Japan.  This  prison,  which  was  built  on  a 
small  promontory,  was  a  palisaded  inclosure,  which  had 
no  shelter  from  the  scorcliing  rays  of  the  sun  in  sum- 
mer or  the  piercing  blasts  of  winter,  and  in  the  middle  of 
which  was  placed  a  sort  of  cage,  ninety-six  inches  high 
by  sixty-four  wide.  It  was  in  this  that  Father  Charles 
Spinola  and  Brother  Fernandez  were  confined,  with  fif- 
teen Franciscans  and  Dominicans.  Seven  Japanese,  im- 
mured in  that  prison  where  space  was  already  wanting 
for  the  many  heroes  it  contained,  sued  for  the  honor  of 
being  admitted  into  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Charles  Spi- 
nola received  them  into  the  novitiate  in  that  cage,  where 
they  sufi"ered  the  pangs  of  hunger,  the  torture  of  thirst, 
and  were  subject  to  all  sorts  of  infection,  but  where  their 
souls  blessed  God  with  so  much  love  for  havino;  thou":ht 
them  worthy  of  this  long,  sorrowful,  and  continuous  mar- 


QEiNEllALSIIIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    371 

tyrdom.  In  the  mean  time,  five  strangers — some  mer- 
chants, others  seamen — landed  at  Nangasaki,  without  feel- 
ing the  least  alarm.     They  were  all  Jesuits. 

The  Anglicans  and  the  Dutch  Calvinists  had  persuaded 
Xogun  that  the  Jesuits  were  conspiring  to  hand  over 
Japan  to  the  dominion  of  the  King  of  Spain.  They 
ottered  their  services  to  watch  the  vessels  as  they  arrived, 
and  to  examine  the  cargoes  they  brought.  Xogun  accepted 
their  services.  The  heretics  had  no  other  intention  than 
to  deprive  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  of  the  advant- 
ages of  the  commerce  with  Japan,  to  accomj^lish  which 
they  were  prepared  to  do  any  thing.  They  were,  by  this 
means,  sure  to  close  the  empire  to  the  Jesuits  and  the 
Church.  When  the  Jesuits  evaded  them,  they  denounced 
other  religious.  Thus  it  was  that  they  had  arrested  Pietro 
de  Zunica,  an  Augustinian  friar,  and  Louis  Florez,  a 
Dominican,  at  the  time  of  their  arrival. 

This  denunciation  provoked  fresh  severities,  and,  on  the 
10th  of  September,  1622,  twenty-four  religious  left  the 
cages  of  Omura  to  ascend  the  pyre.  Father  Spinola,  lead- 
ing the  seven  novices  whom  he  had  reeeiv^ed  in  the  prison, 
was  the  first  to  advance.  Father  Leonard  Kimura  fol- 
lowed, as  did  also  the  other  missionaries  who  were  destined 
to  sufi'er  the  same  death.  Thirty-one  Japanese  Christians 
were  assembled  around  the  stake,  but  they  were  not  to 
suffer  death  by  the  same  torture.  They  were  to  be  be- 
headed, and  awaited  their  execution.  As  soon  as  the  mis- 
sionaries made  their  appearance  on  the  eminence  where 
torrents  of  blood  had  flowed  for  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  which  was  named  by  the  Christians  the  Sacred  Mount^ 
Father  Spinula  began  to  intone  the  Psalm  Laudate  pueri 
'Dominum,  and  immediately  the  voices  of  all  those  mar- 
tyrs about  to  ascend  to  heaven  were  united  with  his,  and 
made  the  air  resound  with  the  demonstrations  of  their 
holy  joy. 
33* 


372  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY"    OF    JESUS. 

The  heroic  phalanx  ascended  the  pile  prepared  for 
their  sacrifice.  '  There,  Father  Charles  Spinola,  who,  for 
twenty  years,  had  preached  the  Gospel  in  that  vast  em- 
pire, at  the  price  of  so  many  cruel  hardships  and  great 
tribulations,  spoke,  for  the  last  time,  to  his  beloved  Chris- 
tians. When  concluding  his  touching  appeal,  he  per- 
ceived the  wife  of  the  Portuguese  at  whose  house  he  was 
arrested  in  1619.  Her  name  was  Isabella  Fernandez,  and 
she  was  of  the  number  of  Christians  whose  executions 
were  about  to  take  place.  The  apostle  martyr  addressed 
her : 

*' Donna  Isabella,  where  is  your  little  Ignatius?" 

"Behold  him,  Father!"  exclaimed  the  young  mother, 
raising  her  child  in  her  arms,  arrayed  in  holida}'  attire, 
as  were  all  the  Christians  who  were  about  to  take  w^ing 
to  heaven.  "  He  is  here.  He  rejoices  that  he  is  to  die 
with  us!"  And,  addressing  the  child,  she  said,"  Behold, 
my  little  Ignatius,  him  who  made  you  a  child  of  our  good 
God,  on  the  eve  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  arrested  in 
our  home." 

The  child  directed  his  gentle  glance  on  the  venerable 
hero,  joined  together  his  little  hands,  and  he  who,  but  three 
years  before,  had  poured  upon  his  infant  brow  the  regener- 
ating waters  of  holy  baptism,  at  this  moment  supplicated 
for  that  angel,  who  was  about  to  quit  this  world,  all  the 
blessings  of  that  heaven  which  was  open  to  receive  him. 
±\.  cry  of  admiration  and  pity  burst  forth  from  every  Chris- 
tian heart,  and  immediately  the  signal  for  the  execution 
was  given,  the  flames  enveloped  the  pile,  and  the  thirty- 
one  heads  rolled  down  in  the  midst  of  the  reverential 
multitude  that  covered  the  promontory,  and  envied  the 
happiness  of  the  martyrs,  while  praying  for  those  w^ho  still 
lived,  in  order  that  their  faith  might  remain  strong  until 
the  end.  Alas  !  that  pious  multitude  was  doomed  to  dis- 
appointment.    Two  Franciscans,  overpowered  by  the  do- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    373 

vourins;  flames  which  bl.izcd  around  and  suffocated  them, 
cursed  the  God  whom  they  had  come  to  make  known,  and 
endeavored  to  escape  from  amidst  the  burning  brands. 
The  executioners  cast  them  back  violently  into  the  devour- 
ing element,  jeering  at  them  for  their  cowardice,  reproach- 
ing them  with  their  apostasy,  and  the  unhappy  men  ex- 
pired near  the  heroes  whose  last  words  were  those  of  love 
and  triumph.  From  the  admission  even  of  a  Protestant 
writer.  Dr.  Ranke,  this  persecution  augmented  the  num- 
ber of  Christians,  in  that  single  year,  by  two  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty-nine. 

Xogun  had  just  resigned  the  reins  of  government  into 
the  hands  of  his  son.  Xogun  II  desired  to  surpass  his 
father.  Reserving  the  torment  of  burning  for  summer, 
he  invented  another  for  winter.  Fathers  Diego  Carvallo 
and  Francis  Buzoni  had  returned  to  Japan  from  Cochin 
China.  On  the  21st  of  February,  1624,  Father  Buzoni 
was  discovered  in  a  forest,  where,  surrounded  by  a  num- 
ber of  catechumens,  he  secretly  exercised  his  laborious 
apostleship.  The  armed  forces  seized  the  pastor  and  his 
flock.  The  victims  of  the  imperial  anger  were  stripped  of 
their  clothing,  plunged  into  a  frozen  pond,  and  there  kept 
for  three  hours.  On  the  following  day,  the  pond  being 
again  frozen  over,  the  ice  was  broken,  and  the  Christians 
again  forced  into  the  water,  where  they  were  kept  for  six 
hours;  then,  as  night  approached,  and  the  water  was  fast 
freezing,  the  Christians,  who,  on  account  of  their  numb- 
ness, w^ere  unable  to  escape,  were  abandoned  to  their  fate. 
In  the  course  of  the  same  year,  the  Jesuit  Miguel  Car- 
vallo and  three  other  missionaries  paid  with  their  lives 
the  crime  of  havino;  called  down  the  blessinos  of  Heaven 
upon  this  earth,  which  so  thirsted  for  the  blood  of  martyrs. 

The  ambassadors  in  vain  protested  against  this.  The 
heretics  were  there,  guarding  the  approaches  to  the  throne, 
as  they  did  the  coasts  of  the  empire,  and  the  sovereign, 


374  HISTORY    OP    THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

deceived  by  their  calumnies,  remained  deaf  to  the  voice 
of  conscience  and  the  dictates  of  humanity.  In  the 
course  of  the  year  1633,  twenty-four  Jesuits,  of  whom 
seventeen  were  natives,  increased  the  glorious  phalanx  of 
martyrs  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

In  1634,  Father  Vieira,  the  Provincial  and  Adminis- 
trator of  the  Bishopric,  was  arrested,  together  with  five 
of  his  brethren.  They  were  commanded  to  apostatize. 
They  refused,  and  the  six  apostolical  heroes  were  con- 
demned and  executed. 

These  were  the  last  of  the  Jesuits.  There  was  not  a 
single  one  remaining  in  Japan.  We  mistake.  There  was 
still  one  left ;  but  one  whom  the  illustrious  society  could 
no  lonjrer  recoo-nize,  whom  the  Church  could  no  lono-er 
count  among  the  number  of  her  children,  and  whom  hell 
alone  could,  at  least  at  that  time,  claim  as  its  greatest  con- 
quest. In  the  preceding  year,  the  brilliant  crown  of  mar- 
tyrdom was  offered  to  twenty -five  veterans  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  One  coward  was  found  among  them!  Father 
Christopher  Ferreira  alone  threw  down  his  arms.  He 
refused  to  march  to  the  last  fii-ht.  He  had  deserted  the 
heroic  army  in  whose  ranks  he  had  served  with  honor  for 
so  long  a  time,  and  had  passed  over  to  the  enemy!  This 
apostasy  was  a  great  and  painful  blow  for  the  brethren  of 
the  unhappy  man,  and  for  the  Christians  of  Japan,  who 
ceased  not  to  pray  for  his  conversion. 

The  Jesuits  had  disappeared  from  the  empire  of  Japan. 
The  Protestants  had  the  savage  satisfaction  of  seeing  them 
all  sacrificed  to  their  sacrilegious  hatred.  But  this  did 
not  suffice.  The  Jesuits,  ever  intrepid,  will  always  find 
the  means  of  penetrating  into  that  land  from  which  the 
most  cruel  tortures  had  not  been  able  to  exclude  them. 
It,  was  necessary  to  arrest  this  holy  fervor,  which  caused 
them  to  run  after  martyrdom  with  so  much  ardor,  and  so 
rapidly  increased    the  number  of  Christians.      With    this 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER    MUTIO  VITTELLESCHI.    375 

intention,  the  heretics  obtained  from  the  Emperor  a  de- 
cree ordering  all  foreigners,  on  entering  the  empire,  to 
trample  under  foot  the  sacred  emblem  of  the  world's  re- 
demption, and  it  was  on  this  condition  alone  that  they 
could  even  hope  to  penetrate  to  the  interior. 

The  first  Apostle  of  Japan,  the  immortal  Xavier,  beheld, 
from  his  heavenly  abode,  this  great  struggle,  which  caused 
the  blood  of  the  Christians  to  flow  in  torrents,  and  which 
decimated  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

At  the  time  when  the  guilty  Ferreira  denied  the  God 
whom  he  had  so  long  adored  and  zealously  served,  a 
young  Jesuit,  belonging  to  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
families  of  Naples,  and  who  lived  in  that  city,  was  struck 
on  the  head  by  a  hammer  falling  from  a  height  of  twenty- 
five  feet.  It  was  Father  Marcel  Francis  Mastrilli  de  St. 
Marsan.  He  was  only  thirty  years  of  age.  Some  work- 
men were  ens-ajjed,  under  his  direction,  in  decorating:  the 
church  of  the  Jesuits  for  a  ceremony.  One  of  them  let 
his  hammer  fall,  and  it  struck  the  young  Father  on  the 
head.  It  was  thought  that  he  was  killed,  but  the  wound 
caused  him  only  to  faint.  The  concussion  was  such  that, 
for  twenty-five  days,  his  death  was  feared.  On  the  night 
of  the  twenty-fifth,  St.  Francis  Xavier  appeared  to  him, 
and,  making  him  promise  to  go  to  Japan,  there  to  suf- 
fer martyrdom,  restored  him  to  health.  On  the  follow- 
ing day,  Father  Mastrilli  said  mass.  Crowds  rushed  to 
see  him,  for  no  one  could  comprehend  how  this  sick  man, 
to  whom  the  last  sacraments  had  been  administered  on  the 
eve,  and  whose  death  the  most  learned  doctors  had  de- 
clared certain,  was  there,  full  of  life  and  in  perfect  health. 
The  news  of  this  miracle,  which  was  attested  by  all  the 
authorities,  had  spread  so  rapidly  that  the  King  of  Spain 
wished  to  see  the  future  martyr,  and  received  him  with 
great  honors.  The  Father  soon  embarked  for  Goa,  with 
several  other  Jesuits,  all  thirsting  for  the  salvation  of  souls, 


376  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESDS. 

and  determined  to  suffer  every  thing,  in  order  to  maintain 
the  faith  in  the  empire  of  Japan.  At  Goa,  other  apostles 
joined  them.  They  knew  the  fate  that  awaited  them  ;  but 
the  Christians  were  in  want  of  their  ministry.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Philippines,  and  so  well  profited  by  every 
opportunity  that  they  succeeded  in  evading  the  vigilance 
of  their  enemies,  and  penetrated  into  the  interior  without 
being  recognized.  A  few  months  later,  on  the  lUh  of 
October,  1637,  Father  Mastrilli  was  conducted  through 
the  streets  of  Nangasaki,  bearing  on  his  back  the  impe- 
rial sentence  which  condemned  him  to  death, 

Christopher  Ferreira  was  compelled  to  be  present  at  all 
the  executions  of  the  Christians.  The  Japanese  authori- 
ties imposed  this  shame  upon,  him  in  order  to  strengthen 
him  in  idolatry.  Although  a  witness  of  the  unutterable 
sufferings  of  Father  Mastrilli,  the  apostate  did  not  appear 
the  least  moved. 

At  the  end  of  the  same  year,  the  sovereign  forbade  his 
subjects  to  pass  the  frontiers  of  his  states.  The  Chris- 
tians, exasperated  at  this,  rose  in  arms,  were  defeated,  and 
took  refuge  at  Ximabara.  There  they  were  besieged  by 
the  imperial  army.  After  having  valiantly  defended  them- 
selves during  six  months,  they  were  compelled  to  surren- 
der. The  city  was  taken  on  the  10th  of  April,  1638,  and 
thirty -seven  thousand  Christians  were  put  to  death ! 

In  1640,  Father  Peter  Pozzo  and  four  native  Jesuits 
won  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  and  received  it  in  presence 
of  Ferreira.  The  apostate  hastened  to  offer  fresh  incense 
to  the  idols.  Francis  Xavier  still  prayed!  Three  years 
later.  Fathers  Rubini,  Mecinski,  Capecci,  Mavquez,  and 
Moralez  were  cast  upon  a  desert  coast;  but,  discovered  by 
the  soldiers  who  were  on  guard,  they  were  seized  and  con- 
veyed before  the  tribunal  at  Nangasaki. 

"Who  are  you?  Why  do  you  come  here?"  asked  the 
judge. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCHI.    377 

«MYe  are  priests,"  answered  Father  Rubini ;  "priests  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  we  have  come  to  prochiim  Jesua 
Christ,  who  died  for  us  all." 

"x\bjure  your  religion,"  continued  the  judge,  "and  you 
shall  be  loaded  with  riches  and  dignities." 

"  It  is  to  cowards  alone  that  dishonorable  propositions 
are  made,"  said  the  holy  Jesuit.  "  We  hope  that  our  God 
will  irive  us  courage  enough  to  die  as  Christians  and 
as  priests." 

At  these  last  words,  the  judge  rose,  hastily  pronounced 
sentence  of  death,  and  then  precipitately  fled.  That 
judge  was  the  apostate  Christopher  Ferreira.  St.  Francis 
Xavier  heard,  from  on  high,  that  sacrilegious  sentence. 
He  prayed  for  the  guilty  one.  Let  us  at  once  say  that, 
in  1652,  a  hundred  years  after  the  glorious  death  of  the 
illustrious  apostle.  Almighty  God  was  at  last  moved. 
Christopher  Ferreira  felt  contrition  stirring  his  soul;  but, 
alone,  isolated,  having  no  spiritual  help,  there  remained 
for  him  no  other  resource  than  martyrdom  by  which  to 
repair  the  great  scandals  he  had  given  during  nineteen 
years.  He  was  then  eighty  years  of  age,  but,  oppressed 
by  sorrow  and  remorse,  he  found  all  the  vigor  and  energy 
of  youth  to  expiate  his  crimes  in  the  most  horrible  tor- 
tures. He  presented  himself  before  the  Governor  of  Nan- 
gasaki,  and  said  to  him,  through  his  tears  and  sobs,  "  I 
have  sinned  against  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth  ;  I  am  a 
Christian,  I  am  a  priest,  I  am  a  Jesuit!"  And  he  died, 
after  sixty-eight  hours  of  the  most  cruel  sufferings,  during 
which  his  courage  and  his  patience  failed  not  a  single  in- 
stant. 

The  Ang-Iicans  and  the  Dutch  had  attained  their  end. 
They  had  destroyed  Christianity  in  Japan,  and  the  Society 
of  Jesus  could  no  longer  hope  to  return  there,  save  at  a 
useless  expense  of  Christian  blood,  so  precious  for  tlic 
glory  of  God.     "These  Jesuits,"  says  a  Protestant  writer, 


618  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Engelbert  Kaempfer,  "  who  earned  a  name  for  themselves, 
in  Japan,  by  their  exempLary  modesty,  their  virtuous  life, 
the  disinterested  assistance  which  they  afforded  to  the 
poor  and  the  sick,  and  by  the  pomp  and  majesty  of  their 
Divine  service — these  Jesuits  had  been  subjected  to  the 
most  frightful  tortures.  They  were  burned  alive,  beheaded, 
and  endured  all  sorts  of  martyrdom,  because  they  were 
accused  by  the  Protestants  of  conspiring  against  the  Em- 
peror in  favor  of  a  European  prince." 

As  ever,  envy  and  heresy  are  to  be  found  at  the  bottom 
of  all  those  calumnies  which  have  led  to  so  many  perse- 
cutions. 

The  province  of  Japan  was  nominally  conserved  by  the 
societ3\  Its  See  was  established  at  Macao,  and  thence  con- 
tinued to  govern  the  various  missions  of  China,  Cochin 
China,  Siam,  Tonquin,  and  others,  newly  established. 

VIII. 

Japan  was  closed  against  the  Jesuits ;  but  China  pre- 
sented, for  their  zeal,  a  still  vaster  field  to  weed  and  culti- 
vate, and  where  the  difficulties  were  greater  and  more 
numerous  than  elsewhere,  in  consequence  of  the  many  su- 
perstitious customs,  to  which  the  Chinese  attached  more 
importance  than  they  did  to  life.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
mission  should  possess  apostles  of  profound  learning  and 
sound  judgment,  to  determine  between  that  which  was 
admissible  and  that  which  was  to  be  entirely  prohibited. 
The  Holy  See  had  authorized  them  to  interdict  only  that 
which  was  contrary  to  the  faith  and  morals;  but  several 
of  the  missionaries  became  alarmed  at  certain  customs,  and, 
in  order  to  appease  their  qualms  of  conscience,  the  Provin- 
cial called  them  all  together  at  Pekin,  in  1628,  so  that 
these  questions  might  be  discussed  in  a  general  assembly, 
and  that  a  uniform  plan  of  action  might  be  determined 
upon.     In  order  to  comply  with  the  call  of  their  Superior, 


GEXERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   MUTIO   VITTELLESCHI.      370 

several  of  the  Fathers  were  under  the  necessity  of  travel- 
ling eight  hundred  leagues  on  foot,  and  that,  too,  over  tlie 
worst  roads. 

Father  Adam  Schall,  a  learned  mathematician,  who  was 

much  admired  by  the  Chinese,  having  been  charged,  by 
the  Fniperor,  Xum-Chin,  to  correct  the  calendar  of  the 
Celestial  Empire,  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  abolish 
lucky  and  unlucky  days.  This  was  quite  a  revolution 
even  among  the  highest  and  most  learned.  However,  the 
able  and  skilful  Jesuit  knew  how  to  render  it  acceptable 
by  the  science  he  displayed  in  his  arguments,  and,  the  con- 
fidence of  the  people  being  secured,  they  adopted  the  sug- 
gestions. The  missionaries  hoped,  by  thus  profiting  by 
such  occasions,  to  succeed  in  destroying,  little  by  little, 
those  customs  which  they  considered  to  be  rather  cere- 
monies than  superstitious  practices.  In  the  mean  while, 
they  made  themselves  '•'■all  to  all,  to  gain  all  to  Christ,^' 
and  confined  themselves  to  the  interdiction  of  that  which 
was  "opposed  to  faith  or  morals,"  as  they  were  empowered 
to  do  by  the  court  of  Rome.  This  indulgence  facilitated 
the  advancement  of  the  Gospel,  Christianity  spread  itself 
rapidly,  and  laborers  were  wanting  to  reap  the  harvest. 
Father  Diaz  applied  to  the  General  of  the  Society  for  re- 
inforcements, and,  navigation  being  at  that  time  very  dan- 
gerous in  the  Chinese  seas,  so  rarely  traversed  by  Eu- 
ropean vessels,  he  wrote  him  as  follows,  with  a  simplicity 
that  speaks  all  the  heroism  of  those  intrepid  apostles: 

"I  ask  you  for  twenty,  and  it  would  not  be  too  many  if 
all,  by  a  special  blessing  of  Heaven,  should  arrive  at  Macao 
in  safety  ;  but  it  is  not  uncommon  for  about  half  of  them 
to  die  on  the  way.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  send 
twenty  a  year,  to  depend  upon  ten." 

In  the  Philippines,  a  report  had  become  current  that 
there  was  not  a  sufiicient  number  of  Jesuits  to  carry  on 
the  missions  of  China,  and  immediately  three  Dominicans 
34 


380  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

hastened  to  assist  them.  They  were  Fathers  Angelo  Cogiii^ 
Thomas  Serrez  and  Moralez.  A  Franciscan,  Anthony  Ste. 
Marie,  accompanied  them.  They  arrived,  by  way  of  the 
island  of  Formosa,  in  the  province  of  Fo-Kien,  ignorant 
of  the  language,  habits,  or  national  customs,  but  full  of 
zeal,  and  ready  to  labor  in  that  vineyard  which  promised 
such  abundant  fruits.  This  province,  one  of  the  latest  con- 
verted, through  lack  of  missionaries,  was  confided  to  the 
care  of  Fathers  Manuel  Diaz  and  Julius  Aleni,  who  had 
already  built  seventeen  churches.  The  people  flocked 
from  great  distances  to  hear  them,  evincing  increased  ad- 
miration for  the  gentleness  of  their  exhortations  and  the 
sanctity  of  their  lives.  The  new  missionaries  were,  from 
their  very  arrival,  astonished  at  the  customs  which  the 
Jesuits  tolerated.  They  were  scandalized  by  their  in- 
dulgence, and  refused  to  accept  the  reasons  by  which  they 
justified  their  course. 

"Learn  the  language,  study  the  manners  and  customs, 
penetrate  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  ideas  of  the  people 
and  the  learned,"  said  the  Jesuits  to  them,  "and,  when 
you  have  seen,  observed  and  studied  the  Chinese,  you  will 
think,  as  we  do,  that  it  was  necessary  to  tolerate,  at  first, 
certain  national  practices,  which  have  nothing  idolatrous 
about  them,  under  pain  of  renouncing  forever  all  hopes 
of  planting  the  Gross  in  this  country." 

The  advice  was  good.  The  missionaries  thought  it  was 
interested,  and  rejected  it.  They  wrote  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Manilla  and  to  the  Bishop  of  Zebu  that  the  Jesuits  per- 
mitted the  Christians  to  prostrate  themselves  before  an 
idol,  to  render  superstitious  worship  to  ancestors,  and  to 
sacrifice  to  Confucius.  They  added  that  the  Fathers  hid 
from  the  neophytes  the  knowledge  of  the  mystery  of  the 
Cross.  The  prelates  considered  the  case  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  be  laid  before  the  court  of  Home. 

While  awaitiu";  the  result  of  a  denunciation  which  seemed 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO   VrTTELLESCIII.    381 

to  tlieiuan  imperative  duty,  the  new  niiiisioiiaiies,  anxious 
to  undo  what  the  Jesuits  had  accomplished,  hastened  to 
preach  to  the  people  through  the  medium  of  interpreters, 
and  announced  that  Confucius  and  all  the  sovereigns  of 
China  were  damned,  and  that  the  Jesuit  Fathers  betrayed 
their  faith  and  their  duty  in  concealing  these  truths,  and 
in  permitting  idolatrous  j^ractices.  Their  listeners  would 
hear  no  more.  They  rushed  upon  them  and  dragged  them 
before  the  jMandarin,  who  had  them  conveyed,  under  es- 
cort, to  31acao,  after  which  he  banished  the  two  Jesuits, 
lest  their  doctrine  one  day  should  become  as  strict  as  that 
of  the  other  religious. 

During  this  time,  in  the  year  1636,  a  band  of  brigands, 
under  the  command  of  the  formidable  Licon,  attacked  the 
city  of  Pekin.  The  Emperor,  fearing  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  his  enemies,  put  an  end  to  his  own  life.  Usduguay,  one 
of  his  generals,  summoned  the  Tartars  to  the  assistance  of 
the  Celestial  Empire,  and  the  Grand  Khan  Zunte  hastened, 
at  the  head  of  his  forces,  to  give  battle  to  the  adventurer 
Licon,  and  to  take  possession  of  the  imperial  throne. 

The  Jesuits  remained  neutral,  amid  all  these  political 
excitements,  and  on  the  14th  of  July,  1637,  Father  Aleni 
was  able  to  return  to  Fo-Kien,  where  he  found  his  church 
and  his  beloved  flock. 

[n  the  same  year,  the  Archbishop  of  Manilla  and  the 
Bishop  of  Zebu  wrote  to  Urban  VIII  that,  being  better 
informed  as  to  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  Chinese 
tolerated  by  the  Jesuits,  as  well  as  of  the  motives  of  their 
toleration,  they  fully  justified  those  religious,  and  could 
but  applaud  their  zeal.  Father  Schall  had  preached  the 
Gospel  to  the  entire  province  of  Chew-Si,  and  Father 
James  Le  Faure,  a  Frenchman,  who  had  come  to  assist 
him  in  that  mission,  accomplished  prodigies  there,  and  was 
venerated  as  a  saint. 

In  1644,  the  Grand  Khan  of  Tartary  attacked  and  de- 


382  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

feated  the  brigand  Licon,  and  bestowed  the^  sceptre  of 
China  upon  Prince  Chum-Tchi,  his  son.  The  heirs  of  the 
grandson  of  Yan-Lie  had  retired  to  the  south  of  the  em- 
pire, without  giving  up  the  hope  of  one  day  regaining  the 
crown  of  their  forefathers. 

In  Cochin  China  and  Tonquin,  Christianity  spread 
wonderfully  under  the  apostleship  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Father  Alexander  De  Rhodes  arrived  there  in  1624,  being, 
at  the  time,  thirty-three  years  of  age,  to  assist  the  mission- 
aries who  had  succeeded  in  entering  that  country  in  1615; 
and  he  had  so  entirely  identified  himself  with  the  people 
as  to  gain  their  tenderest  affections,  and  exercise  over 
them  an  unbounded  influence.  From  the  missions  of 
Tonquin,  he  went  to  those  of  China,  whence  he  returned 
to  Tonquin,  where  he  was  received  with  most  heart-felt  joy 
by  all  his  neophytes.  In  1640,  he  was  ordered  by  his 
superiors  to  proceed  to  Cochin  China,  where  he  was  equally 
loved  and  venerated.  His  success  was  so  wonderful  that 
the  sovereign  became  alarmed  at  the  too  rapid  progress  of 
the  Gospel,  and  sought  to  put  a  stop  to  it  by  persecution. 
The  Christians  preferred  death  to  apostasy.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Cham-Tao,  hoping  that  the  neophytes  would  not 
dare  to  defy  him  by  declaring  themselves  Christians, 
ordered  a  census  to  be  taken  of  all  the  followers  of  Christ 
in  his  province.  They  all  avowed  themselves  Christians. 
Not  a  single  one  hesitated.  This  was  highly  offensive  to 
the  Governor.  He  avenged  himself  on  the  missionary. 
Father  De  lihodes  was  condemned  to  banishment  beyond 
the  frontiers  of  the  empire,  but  he  could  not  make  up  his 
mind  to  abandon  his  flock. 

"  I  was  the  only  priest  in  the  whole  country,"  he  re- 
lates; "  I  was  not  callous  enough  to  leave  thirty  thou- 
sand Christians  without  a  pastor.  I  withdrew  from  the 
court  and  kept  myself  concealed,  generally  remaining, 
during  the  day-time,  in  a  boat,  with  eight  of  my  catechists, 


GENERALSIIir  OF   FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCIII.    383 

and  at  night  I  went  among  the  Christians,  who  secretly  as- 
sembled in  their  houses." 

Father  Alexander  thus  lived  for  a  year,  when  he  was  ar- 
rested on  the  river,  where  he  took  refuge  during  the  day. 
He  was  taken  before  the  King,  by  whom,  without  any  other 
form  or  process,  he  was  condemned  to  be  beheaded.  The 
good  Father  had  resided  at  the  court  for  a  long  time.  His 
gentleness,  simplicity,  and  the  holiness  of  his  life  had  won 
for  him  the  love  and  admiration  even  of  the  Pagans,  who 
had  rejected  his  teachings,  and,  on  his  being  condemned, 
they,  with  one  accord,  solicited  pardon  for  the  missionary. 
The  King,  unable  to  resist  so  many  entreaties,  granted  him 
his  life,  but  banished  him  from  his  dominions.  The  heart 
of  the  apostle  was  wounded.  Thirty  thousand  Christians 
were  to  be  left  without  spiritual  succor,  at  the  mercy 
of  their  enemies,  and  in  face  of  a  persecution  which 
promised  to  become  more  severe  every  day.  Father  Alex- 
ander, thus  compelled  to  separate  himself  from  his  loved 
neophytes,  promised  them  to  labor,  with  all  his  strength,  to 
procure  other  missionaries  for  them,  and  he  left  them,  if 
not  consoled,  at  least  a  little  less  unhappy. 

In  Madura,  Father  Robert  Nobili,  whom  the  Holy 
See  had,  in  1623,  authorized  to  continue  his  peculiar 
mission  until  further  examinations  and  a  final  decision, 
worked  incessantly  in  extending  the  empire  of  the  Cross, 
and  achieved  extraordinary  results.  The  Christians  under 
his  charge  numbered  nearly  one  hundred  thousand.  Not 
satisfied  with  devoting  himself  to  the  laborious  ministry 
of  his  apostleship  in  such  a  vast  extent  of  territory,  he 
undertook  to  facilitate  for  his  successors  the  continuance 
of  his  labors  by  studying  the  various  languages  of  their 
peoples,  and  determining  their  grammatical  laws. 

In  the  island  of  Ceylon,  where  St.  Francis  Xavier  had 
sowed  the  first  seeds  of  the  Gospel,  it  continued  to  flour- 
ish, and,  in  spite  of  the  efi"orts  of  the  Brahmins,  Chris- 
34* 


384  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tianity  daily  increased  under  the  zealous  ministry  of  the 
Jesuits,  aided  by  some  Franciscans  who  had  joined  them. 

The  poisoned  arrows  of  the  Pagans  not  unfrequently 
sent  to  heaven  the  missionaries  whose  teachings  over- 
threw the  pagodas ;  but  other  Jesuits  were  soon  there,  to 
replace  them  on  the  breach  where  they  had  so  gloriously 
fallen.  The  Protestants  knew  this,  and  they  kept  vigilant 
watch  over  the  whole  coast  of  Goa,  in  order  to  annihilate 
them  on  their  journey.  Fathers  Juan  Mattella  and 
Matthew  Palingotti  were  put  to  death  by  lances  in  the 
hands  of  the  Indians  of  Ceylon.  In  1627,  Father  Sociero 
fell,  pierced  by  their  arrows,  and,  on  the  14th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1628,  Fathers  Matthew  Fernandez  and  Bernard  Peces 
met  a  similar  fate. 

Some  time  after,  a  Portuguese  vessel  was  attacked  and 
set  on  fire  by  the  Dutch.  Fathers  Emmanuel  Lima  and 
Maur  Moureira  were  on  board.  The  crew  jumped  over- 
board, in  order  to  escape  the  flames,  and  they  were  fol- 
lowed by  Father  Moureira;  but,  being-  recognized  by  the 
heretics,  they  rushed  upon  him  and  put  him  to  death  with 
their  harpoons. 

On  the  16th  of  August,  1633,  Don  Antonio  de  A^asconcel- 
los.  Grand  Inquisitor  of  the  Indies,  laid  down  the  honors 
of  his  office  to  enter  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He  was  upon  the 
point  of  seeing  his  desire  fulfilled,  when,  on  that  very  daj^, 
he  was  poisoned  by  some  of  the  enemies  of  the  society,  who 
were  aware  of  his  intentions,  and  wished  to  prevent  their 
.  accomplishment.  Father  d'Andrada  was  likewise  poisoned, 
in  the  following  year,  by  some  Indians,  at  the  instigation 
of  the  heretics.  But  Providence  watched  over  the  Chris- 
tians of  India,  and  did  not  permit  the  Pagans  and  heretics 
to  carry  ofl'  and  put  to  death  all  its  chosen  apostles.  The 
Gospel  was  daily  announced  and  propagated  in  new  lands, 
by  means  of  the  incomparable  zeal  of  the  members  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO   VITTELLESCHI.    385 

111  1628,  Father  Juan  Cabral  gained  access  to  Thibet, 
and  thence  passed  into  Nepaul.  Thus,  the  Jesuits  were 
in  all  parts  of  Asia,  diffusing  the  Gospel  in  all  the  known 
countries  of  the  East.  True,  they  left  Japan,  through 
the  calumnies  of  the  heretics,  but  what  a  multitude  of 
soyils  had  they  saved  during  nearly  a  century  that  their 
apostleship  had  sustained  itself  there  with  such  prodig- 
ious success!  What  an  innumerable  multitude  of  martyrs 
that  heroic  apostleship  had  sent  to  heaven  !  Now,  we 
see  it,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  in  the  Moluccas,  in  the 
Philippines  ;  in  Corea,  where  they  penetrated  with  the 
Christian  Generals  of  the  Japanese  army  ;  in  China  and 
in  Cochin  China;  in  Ceylon  and  in  Bengal;  in  Tonquin 
and  in  Thibet;  in  Mongolia  and  in  Tartary ;  in  Persia 
and  in  Armenia.  They  were  in  Turkey  in  Asia,  and  in 
Turkey  in  Europe  ;  in  the  Archipelago  of  Greece  ;  and 
in  every  place  they  gained  souls  to  God,  and  secured  the 
triumph  of  the  true  faith.  They  had  succeeded  in  pene- 
trating into  Syria,  and  we  have  found  them  in  Africa, 
where,  by  their  zeal  and  matchless  charity,  Christianity 
continued  to  spread. 

IX. 

The  labors  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  new  world  were 
neither  less  laborious  nor  less  fruitful  than  in  the  old. 
Their  untiring  patience,  their  angelic  mildness,  and  their 
unbounded  charity  subdued  the  most  intractable  natures, 
and  civilized  them  by  initiating  them  into  the  mysteries 
of  Christianity,  and  giving  them  the  example  of  the  most 
humble  and  attractive  virtues.  These  savage  and  uncul- 
tivated peoples,  who  were,  for  the  most  part,  cannibals, 
were  surprised  on  first  beholding  the  missionary.  Then 
they  listened  to  him  with  curiosity,  and  soon,  enchanted 
by  his  gentle  demeanor,  by  that  angelic  smile,  that  com- 
passionate and  sympathetic  tone  of  voice,  which  they  had 


386  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

9 

never  before  experienced,  they  began  to  love  the  mission- 
ary— the  "  white  man,''  the  "  hlaxk  robe  " — and  desired 
to  retain  him  forever  among  them. 

The   invasion    of  the  English,  as  we   have  seen,  inter- 
rupted the  missions  in  Canada  in   1613.     Some  religious 
of  the  Order  of  the  Recollects  had  been  called  to  continue 
it,   but,   in    1625,   they   requested  that  Jesuits  might    be 
sent   out,  recognizing   and   acknowledging  their  superior- 
ity   in    that    particular    sphere.      Nevertheless,    the    good 
Recollects,  at  the  same  time,  solicited   the  consolation  of 
being  permitted  to  assist  them  in  that  laborious  ministry. 
Soon,  Fathers  Masse,  John  de  Breboonf,   Charles  Lalemant, 
Ragueneau,  Anne  de  None,  and  twenty  other  Jesuits,  suc- 
cessively reached  Canada.     In  1632,  the  Calvinists  were, 
by  a  royal  ordinance,  prohibited  from  entering  the  colony, 
and  the  English  were  expelled,  carrying  with    them   the 
hatred  of  the  natives.     Thus,  the  Jesuits  were  free  to  ex- 
ercise their  apostleship  in    all    security.     They   took  ad- 
vantage of  this  to  penetrate  far  into  the  mountains  and 
forests,  across  lakes  and  rivers,  in  search  of  the  Hurons, 
the  Algonquins,  the  Iroquois,  and  the  Montaguais.     They 
followed  them  to  the  fishery  and  to  the  chase,  and  shared 
their  wandering    life,  waiting   the    day  when   they  might 
settle  them  by  the  culture  and  tillage  of  the  soil — labors 
of  which  they  strove   to   make    them  appreciate  the  ad- 
vantages.     They  thus,   by  dint   of   patience  and  charity, 
and  at  the  price  of  a  life  of  fatigues  and  privations  of 
all  kinds,  succeeded  in  subduing  the  savage    instincts  of 
those  peoples,  in  instructing,  enlightening,  and  rendering 
them  Christians.     Through    Christianity  they  labored  to 
civilize  them,  and  founded  for  them  the  town  of  Sillery. 
In  1635,  the  Marquis  of  Gannaches  founded  a  college, 
at   Quebec,   for  the    natives,    and    in   1639,  the   Ursulines 
came  from  France,  to  establish,  in  the  same  city,  a  semi- 
nary and   other   schools    for   the    Canadian   girls.     Some 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCTTI.     387 

Sisters  of  Charity,  destined  to  take  charge  of  the  sick,  ac- 
companied them.  Soon  tlie  Reduction  of  Sillery  became 
insufficient,  and  several  others  were  established,  under  the 
direction  of  the  missionaries. 

Conception,  St.  Ignatius,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  St.  Joseph, 
and  St.  Mary  were  so  many  small  towns,  inhabited  by  the 
Ilurons,  Algonquins,  and  Montaguais,  of  which  the  Jes- 
uits were  the  governors. 

The  Iroquois  and  the  Ilurons  were  slow  in  adapting 
themselves  to  sedentary  life,  and  it  required  considerable 
time  to  reconcile  those  rebellious  spirits  to  the  law  of  the 
Gospel.  The  Hurons  at  length  submitted;  but  the  Iro- 
quois, ever  intractable,  attacked  them,  and,  in  their  hatred 
of  civilization,  repelled  the  Christian  efforts  of  the  Jesuits. 

In  1643,  Father  Jogues  and  Brother  Rene  Goupil  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  a  river,  escorted  by  canoes  full  of 
neophytes.  The  Iroquois,  who  were  in  ambush  on  either 
side  of  the  stream,  attacked  the  Christians,  seized  the 
Father  and  the  Brother,  mangled  and  lacerated  their 
bodies,  and  led  them,  thus  wounded,  from  village  to  village, 
in  order  to  expose  them  to  public  derision.  Brother  Gou- 
pil was  finally  killed  by  a  blow  from  an  axe,  and  Father 
Jogues,  who  was  reserved  for  a  slower  and  a  thousand 
times  more  painful  martyrdom,  employed  the  brief  time 
left  him — for  he  was  dying — in  making  known  the  God 
whom  he  had  come  to  preach,  and  for  whom  he  suffered 
with  a  resignation  which  the  Iroquois  had  never  before 
witnessed.  The  Dutch  of  Albany  did  all  in  their  powej; 
to  save  the  Jesuit's  life,  and  relieve  him  from  bondage. 
Perhaps  they  hoped  this  noble  proceeding  would  procure 
for  them,  once  more,  admittance  to  Canada. 

Father  Jogues  lived  in  perpetual  suffering,  when,  one 
day,  he  had  reason  to  suspect  that  the  Iroquois  were  pre- 
paring an  expedition  against  the  Hurons,  in  order  the 
more  easily  to  surprise  the  French  colony.     The  Father 


388  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

wrote  immediately  to  the  Chevalier  de  Montmagny,  Gov- 
ernor of  the  colony,  and  found  means  of  conveying  his 
letter.     It  was  dated  June  3,  1643,  and  concluded  thus : 

"I  have  baptized  more  than  sixty  persons  here,  several  of  whom 
have  gone  to  heaven.  This  is  my  only  consolation — that  and  the 
will  of  God,  to  which  I  submit  mine." 

The  Dutch,  at  last,  succeeded  in  saving  the  missionary 
from  an  inevitable  death.  Two  of  his  fingers  were  am- 
putated, and  he  could  no  longer  oifer  up  the  holy  sacri- 
fice. He  asked  permission  to  return  to  France,  where 
Ann  of  Austria  desired  to  see  him.  He  sought  a  dis- 
pensation for  celebrating  mass  with  his  mutilated  hands, 
and,  as  soon  as  he  obtained  it,  he  returned  to  Canada. 

A  few  years  previously,  two  hundred  English  families 
had  abandoned  a  country  where  they  were  not  allowed  to 
avow  themselves  Catholics,  nor  to  bring  up  their  children 
in  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  and,  accompanied  by  fOur 
Jesuits,  Fathers  Andrew  White,  John  Altham,  Brothers 
Knowles  and  Thomas  Gervase,  had  disembarked  at  the 
Island  of  St.  Clement,  on  the  Potomac.  On  the  27th  of 
March,  1634,  the  little  colony,  ascending  the  river,  pro- 
ceeded as  far  as  the  St.  Mary  River,  and  presented  them- 
selves to  the  Chief  of  the  Piscataway  tribe,  who  gladly 
received  them ;  for  he  had  heard  of  the  Jesuits,  and,  with- 
out knowing  them,  loved  them.  Huts  were  hastily  con- 
structed for  the  colonists;  the  missionaries  made  known 
the  good  news  to  the  savages,  whose  instinct  seemed  to 
have  prepared  them  for  its  reception,  and  the  Reduction  of 
Maryland  was  established. 

The  Anglicans,  established  in  Virginia,  were  irritated 
by  the  arrival  of  the  Jesuits,  and  by  the  docility  of  the 
natives  in  listening  to  their  instructions,  and  they  circu- 
lated the  report  that  they  were  Spaniards,  who  had  come 
to  subject  them  to  the  most  abject  slavery ;  but  the  efi"orts 


GENERALSHIP  OF  TATIIER  MUTIO    VITTELLESCIII.    389 

of  the  Fathfirs,  their  gentle  charity,  and  their  tender  so- 
licitude for  the  Indians  overcame  the  Anglican  calumnies. 
In  1610,  they  had  won  over  several  tribes,  had  gained  a 
great  number  of  neophytes,  and  only  asked  for  apostles  of 
their  society  to  assist  them,  and  to  occupy  their  places 
whenever  death  should  overtake  them;  for  already  they 
felt  exhausted  by  their  laborious  apostleship. 

At  the  same  time.  Fathers  Empteau  and  Bonton  preached 
the  Gospel  in  the  Caribbean  Islands,  with  a  success  the 
most  consoling;  and  Mexico  possessed  also  its  colleges 
and  houses  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

At  Carthagena,  in  New  Granada,  Father  de  Sandoval 
had  expended  his  life  in  instructing  and  converting  the 
negro  slaves,  who  were  continuously  arriving  in  that  city. 
Carthagena,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  the  slave  mart  of 
the  entire  world,  and  the  traffic  was  incessant.  The  negro 
merchants  imported  their  stock  daily  from  the  West  Indies 
and  the  coast  of  x\frica.  Father  de  Sandoval  had  devoted 
himself  to  the  salvation  of  that  race  of  human  beings, 
who,  through  sheer  cupidity,  were  treated  as  common  cat- 
tle, and  he  had  contracted  infirmities  which  were  to  him 
a  complete  martyrdom.  He  was  literally  covered  with 
ulcers.  But,  the  God  who  died  for  the  salvation  of  all, 
did  not  abandon  the  poor  negro  slaves.  In  1615,  He  sent 
them  a  successor  worthy  to  take  the  place  of  Sandoval — 
Father  Peter  Claver — whom  the  Church  has  proclaimed 
blessed,  who  called  himself,  and  who  really  was,  the  slave 
of  slaves. 

The  missions  of  Brazil  became  more  extended  every 
day,  and  called  for  more  laborers  willing  to  work  in  the 
midst  of  the  privations  and  fatigues  incident  to  the  cli- 
mate, the  oppositions  excited  by  the  cupidity  of  the  col- 
onists, and  the  many  and  various  sufferings  which  awaited 
them.  But  we  know  that  each  trial  of  that  hard  ministry 
was  but  an  additional   attraction  for  the   disciples  of  St 


390  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Ignatius,  and  it  was  a  matter  of  emulation  among  them 
who  should  obtain  the  favor  of  being  sent  to  those  danger- 
ous missions,  which  had  already  made  so  many  martyrs. 
They  were,  also,  aware  how  many  were  lost  in  their  long 
and  perilous  voyage  across  the  ocean,  and  it  was  to  them 
a  subject,  not  of  lamentation,  but  of  rejoicing,  since  it 
was  sacrificing  life  in  the  exercise  of  apostolical  charity, 
and,  hence,  to  the  glory  of  God.  On  the  30th  of  April, 
1643,  fifteen  of  them  embarked  at  Lisbon  for  the  mission 
of  Maranham,  which  had  just  been  established  by  the 
Fathers  residing  at  Pernambuco.  The  vessel  arrived  in 
safety  in  sight  of  the  coast,  and  each  one  rejoiced  at  find- 
ing himself  so  near  the  much-desired  port.  Suddenly  a 
terrible  crash  is  heard  on  board  ;  the  vessel  has  struck  ; 
the  next  wave  lifts  it  up  and  dashes  it  forward  ;  a  few 
moments  and  it  is  swallowed  up  in  the  sea  !  Twelve  mis- 
sionaries are  drowned !  Three  alone  escape  and  reach 
their  destination. 

The  Jesuits  of  Ilio  Janeiro  heard  that,  at  about  twenty 
leagues  to  the  northern  coast,  there  dwelt  a  tribe  whose 
ferocity  spread  terror  far  and  wide.  The  Guaitasses,  or 
Guaitos,  subsisted  on  the  dead  bodies  which  were  driven 
ashore  from  the  ocean,  and  when  the  sea  did  not  supply 
them  with  sufiicient  food,  they  placed  themselves  in  am- 
bush on  the  borders  of  their  territory.  They  watched  for 
the  European  travellers,  rushed  upon  and  put  them  to 
death,  in  order  to  feast  on  their  flesh !  The  colonists 
had  never  dared  to  face  these  formidable  cannibals.  Any 
attempt  at  their  civilization  appeared  impracticable.  The 
Jesuits  thou;;lit  otherwise. 

In  that  year,  16-±3,  they  sent  eight  missionaries  to  the 
Guaitos.  The  good  Fathers  were  ignorant  of  the  lan- 
guage of  these  savages.  Their  only  weapons  of  defense 
were  their  crucifix,  their  rosary,  their  breviary,  and  con- 
fidence   in  Almighty  God.      These    arms  were,   to  them, 


GEiNERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    391 

sufficient — at  least  for  martyrdom.  They  started  gayly  for 
this  conquest,  and  sought  the  presence  of  the  fierce  sav- 
ages. The  Guaitos,  astonished  at  their  confidence  and 
afiectionate  deportment,  surrounded  them,  examined  and 
interrogated  them,  by  gestures  and  signs,  and  could  not 
believe  that  these  white  men  came  thus  to  give  them- 
selves up  to  their  ferocious  appetite.  Curiosity  prepon- 
derating over  every  other  instinct,  nine  of  them  submitted 
to  the  Jesuits,  who  induced  them  to  follow  them  as  far 
Kio  Janeiro.  There  they  were  sought  after,  feasted, 
caressed,  instructed,  and  baptized.  Then  they  became  so 
many  catechists  for  their  tribe.  The  Guaitos  were 
conquered. 

X. 

The  colonists  of  Brazil  could  not  forgive  the  Jesuits 
for  the  protection  which  their  gentle  charity  afforded  to 
the  natives  who  had  embraced  Christianity  through  their 
holy  ministry.  The  King  of  Spain  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
at  the  solicitation  of  Father  Valdivia,  freed  the  baptized 
Indians,  and  ordered  the  Spaniards  to  leave  them  entirely 
at  the  disposition  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
who  would  effect  their  civilization  by  Christianity.  This 
supreme  decision  deprived  the  colonists  of  a  lucrative 
trade,  and  aroused  their  anger  against  the  missionaries. 
They  employed  every  means  to  dishearten  them  and 
compel  them  to  abandon  those  countries  where  the  sav- 
ages voluntarily  came  to  them,  and  looked  upon  them  as 
their  deliverers.  But  the  Jesuits  were  not  so  easily  dis- 
couraged. The  Spaniards  refused  them  alms.  The  Fath- 
ers submitted  to  the  privation,  and  subsisted  on  herbs, 
roots,  and  Indian  corn,  declarinir  that  death  alone  could 
separate  them  from  their  beloved  Indian  flock. 

The  first  Reduction  which  they  founded  in  the  province 
of  Paraguay,  and  to  which  they  had  given  the  name  of  Lo- 
35 


392  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

retto,  rapidly  prospered.  The  Indians  hastened  to  it,  beg- 
ging to  be  allowed  to  erect  dwellings  there,  and  each  day 
drew  toward  them  fresh  recruits.  It  soon  became  neces- 
sary to  establish  a  second  Reduction — that  of  St.  Igna- 
tius— then  a  third,  and  a  fourth.  The  good  Indians  could 
not  withstand  the  gentle  influence  of  the  Fathers,  and 
felt  so  happy,  and  were  so  docile  under  their  direction, 
that  it  achieved  marvels  in  civilization  among  the  differ- 
ent colonies. 

Each  art  and  profession  had  its  respective  workshop, 
under  the  superintendence  of  one  of  the  assistant  broth- 
ers. Each  Indian  selected  the  sort  of  labor  he  preferred. 
One  became  a  carpenter ;  another  a  locksmith  ;  a  third 
learned  to  carve  or  to  paint ;  others  became  weavers  or 
builders.  The  labor  which  appeared  to  them  the  least 
agreeable  was  that  of  tilling  the  land.  x\griculture 
found  but  few  admirers,  and  the  Fathers  were  compelled 
to  work  at  the  plough  themselves,  and  demonstrate  to  their 
pupils  all  that  it  was  possible  to  procure  from  the  earth 
for  the  common  weal  by  well-directed  labor. 

The  Reductions  soon  became  little  towns,  with  regular 
streets,  comfortable  and  well-constructed  houses,  and 
suitable  churches.  The  labor  of  each  one  was  assigned 
him.  Every  Monday,  each  woman  received  the  wool  or 
cotton  which  she  had  to  spin  during  the  week,  and  return 
on  the  Saturday  following.  In  like  manner,  the  men, 
also,  had  their  tasks,  according  to  each  one's  trade  or  pro- 
fession. Wax  and  honey  were  collected  in  the  woods, 
and  the  caamani,  a  medicinal  herb,  much  sought  for  by 
the  Spaniards,  became  for  the  Reductions  a  staple  article 
of  coninierce. 

These  neophytes  led  such  pure  and  simple  lives,  that 
^he  missionaries  forbade  them  all  intercourse  with  the 
Spai]iards.  They  learned  to  read  and  write  the  Spanish 
language,  but  nqt  tp  speak  it.     The  Fathers  alone   nego- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   MUTIO  VITTELLESCHI.    393 

tiated  with  the  Europeans.  Each  of  their  little  towns 
was  governed  by  two  of  the  Fathers,  of  whom  one  was 
pastor,  the  other  vicar.  They  designated  the  hours  for 
prayer,  repose,  and  relaxation,  and  they  watched  and  fol- 
lowed their  neophytes  every-where.  They  rendered  them- 
selves so  dear  to  these  children  of  the  forest,  that  this 
constant  surveillance  was  regarded  only  in  the  light  of  a 
paternal  encouragement.  When  they  had  acquired  the 
spirit  of  order  and  economy,  the  Fathers  assigned  to  each 
a  piece  of  ground  to  cultivate,  and  then  constituted  them 
the  owners,  and  every  year  a  portion  of  the  harvest  was 
stored  away  in  the  granaries,  either  as  a  resource  for  the 
infirm,  or  to  guard  against  the  contingency  of  an  unpro- 
ductive season,  and  other  unforeseen  wants. 

The  tranquil  happiness  of  the  peoples  thus  governed  by 
the  Jesuits  excited  the  envy  and  jealousy  of  their  neigh- 
bors. Even  the  Spaniards,  comparing  that  peaceful  life 
with  the  slavery  to  which  they  subjected  the  natives  in 
whom  they  were  allowed  to  traffic,  experienced  increased 
feelings  of  anger  against  the  Jesuits.  In  this  gentle  rule, 
they  could  see  only  a  continual  and  pointed  censure  of 
their  own  cruel  cupidity.  The  Fathers  were  not  ignorant 
of  these  hostile  sentiments,  and,  fearing  to  see  them  con- 
verted into  an  open  attack  on  the  Reductions,  obtained 
from  the  King  of  Spain  permission  for  their  neophytes  to 
carry  fire-arms,  and  to  use  them  in  case  of  an  assault  being 
made  upon  them  by  their  enemies,  whether  savages  or 
Spaniards.  The  Fathers,  furnished  with  this  authoriza- 
tion, had  taught  the  tribes  to  manufacture  all  sorts  of 
European  arms,  even  cannon,  and  an  arsenal  was  estab- 
lished in  each  borough  for  the  public  protection.  Each 
of  these  boroughs  had  its  militia,  composed  of  infantry 
and  cavalry;  each  corps  had  its  officers  and  men.  The 
military  exercise  took  place  on  fixed  days,  and  the  dis- 
cipline was  perfect.     Idleness  was  publicly  punished.     Like 


39-t  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  primitive  Christians,  all  the  neophytes  mutually  as- 
sisted each  other,  and  were  happy  in  sharing  the  fruits  of 
their  common  labor.  They  would  have  recognized  no  au- 
thority except  that  of  the  good  Fathers  ;  but  the  latter 
taught  them  that,  above  them  all,  there  was  the  spiritual 
Sovereign  of  all  the  Christians  on  earth,  the  temporal  sover- 
eign of  Spain,  and  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  that 
all  should  love  and  respect  these  three  authorities  ;  and, 
at  the  bidding  of  their  good  Fathers,  these  simple  and  un- 
affected Christians  declared  that  they  were  ready  to  obey 
willingly  the  slightest  signal  of  their  legitimate  rulers. 

When  Don  Pedro  Faxardo,  Bishop  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
visited  these  Beductions,  the  Guaranis  expressed  their 
great  joy,  and  evinced  the  deepest  veneration  for  him. 
He  investigated  minutely  that  marvel  of  Christian  civili- 
zation, and,  in  giving  a  detail  to  the  King  of  the  incredi- 
ble success  of  the  Jesuits,  he  said: 

"  I  do  not  think  that,  in  a  whole  year,  a  single  mortal 
sin  is  committed  in  these  Reductions." 

The  republic  of  Paraguay,  which  the  Jesuits  gov- 
erned. Gospel  in  hand,  and  which,  from  afar,  was  the  ad- 
miration of  Europe  as  a  singular  prodigy,  and  unparalleled 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  was  augmented  by  the  arrival 
of  several  other  peoples,  who  had  also  been  conquered  by 
the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Sapez,  the  Guaranis,  and 
several  other  tribes,  had  yielded  to  the  mild  teaching  of 
the  Fathers,  and  the  small  towns  became  extended,  or 
new  ones  were  formed,  for  the  continual  fresh  arrivals. 
Fathers  Joseph  Cataldino,  Simon  Maceta,  Gonzales,  and 
Antonio  Buiz  de  Montoya  governed  the  principal  colo- 
nies. The  colleges  of  the  Jesuits,  in  the  provinces  of 
Paraguay,  Tucuman,  and  Bio  de  la  Plata  received  the  young 
natives,  and  thus  prepared  the  future  generations.  Other 
missionaries  went  to  make  fresh  conquests,  and  returned 
with  new  tribes,  which,  through  their  fearless  charity  and 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  MUTIO  VITTELLESCIII.    395 

zeal,  were  discovered  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  where 
hitherto  no  European  had  dared  to  penetrate.  But  all 
these  apostolical  marvels  were  frequently  obtained  only  at 
the  price  of  their  lives.  It  sometimes  happened  that  the 
first  missionaries  met  their  death  at  the  hands  of  the 
savages.  Then  the  martyr's  blood  prepared  the  way  for 
those  who  were  to  follow.  At  other  times,  the  jealous 
avarice  of  the  colonists  avenged  itself  by  raising  up  ene- 
mies against  the  colonies  of  neophytes,  and,  from  1630 
until  1631,  the  Mannelas,  savage  tribes  of  the  Brazilian 
frontiers,  ravaged  and  destroyed  the  beautiful  Reductions 
of  St.  Joseph,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  St.  Peter,  Conception, 
St.  Ignatius,  and  Loretto.  The  Spaniards  did  not  render 
the  least  assistance  to  the  neophytes. 

"The  Fathers  desired  to  preserve  to  them  their  liberty," 
said  they.  "  The  Fathers  sought  to  civilize  and  govern 
them  in  their  own  way.  Let  them  now  defend  them  in 
their  own  way  !" 

This  is  precisely  what  the  good  Fathers  did.  The  ne- 
ophytes being  unable  to  defend  themselves  against  the 
savages,  whose  arrows  were  poisoned,  the  Fathers  caused 
their  respective  colonies  to  emigrate,  abandoning  all  their 
material  to  the  enemy.  Under  the  direction  of  Fathers 
de  Montoya,  Suarez,  Contreras,  and  Espinosa,  all  the  Chris- 
tians embarked  on  the  Parana^  and,  descending  the  river 
as  far  as  the  Grand  Bapids,  begged  hospitality  from  the 
more  recently  established  colonies,  which  were,  as  yet,  un- 
known to  those  savages.  A  few  years  subsequently,  in 
1640,  these  Beductions  also  were  attacked  by  the  same 
enemies;  but,  on  this  occasion,  the  Christians  were  well 
prepared.  They  were  numerous,  accustomed  to  war,  and 
in  a  position  to  repulse  the  army  of  Indians  that  had  come 
upon  them.  The  Jesuits  directed  the  defense,  led  the 
regiments  of  their  warriors,  animated  them  by  word  and 

gesture,  and  made  of  them  so  many  heroes.     The  enemy 
35* 


396  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF  JESUS. 

was,  for  the  most  part,  crushed  and  cut  to  pieces,  the  re- 
mainder being  taken  prisoners.  To  their  captivity  the 
survivors  owed  the  salvation  of  their  souls. 

The  good  Fathers  did  not  long  enjoy  the  peace  secured 
to  their  colonies  by  the  triumph  of  the  neophytes.  Their 
Reductions  had  become  so  numerous,  and  they  comprised 
so  vast  an  extent  of  territory,  that  it  became  necessary  to 
create  a  bishopric  for  Paraguay.  The  Franciscans  labored 
zealously  in  the  Brazilian  missions  confided  to  them, 
and  one  of  their  Order,  Father  Bernardino  de  Cardenas, 
had  especially  distinguished  himself,  both  by  his  talents 
and  his  virtues.  It  was  he  who  was  proposed  to  the  King 
and  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  fill  the  new  See  of  the  As- 
sumption, a  city  founded  by  the  Jesuits  Gonzales  and  Juan 
del  Castillo. 

Nature  is  never  entirely  dead  in  the  priest  or  the  re- 
lio-ious.  If  the  latter  omit,  for  a  single  instant,  to  exercise 
his  vigilance,  he  will  soon  cease  to  maintain  his  ground, 
and  will  behold  with  fear  the  loss  he  has  sustained.  Ber- 
nardino de  Cardenas  felt  happy  and  proud  at  the  thought 
of  havinir  a  diocese  to  govern.  He  dwelt  with  delight  on 
the  reflection ;  it  led  him  to  the  desire  of  receiving  the  Bulls. 
This  desire  generated  a  feeling  of  impatience,  and  the  Bulls 
not  arriving  so  soon  as  the  future  Bishop  desired,  he  no 
longer  awaited  them.  He  presented  to  the  Bishop  of 
Tucuman  the  letters  announcing  the  dispatch  of  the  Bulls, 
and  he  argued  so  fully  and  so  well  that  he  succeeded  in 
persuading  the  Bishop  to  consecrate  him.  The  ceremony 
took  place  in  the  month  of  October,  1641. 

This  consecration  was  illegal.  The  Jesuits  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cordova,  better  informed  than  the  others,  had 
in  vain  opposed  it,  and,  as  soon  as  he  was  consecrated,  Don 
Bernardino  summoned  them  to  give  a  written  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  validity  of  the  consecration.  Father  de  Boroa, 
Hector  of  the  University,  having  declared  that  he  could 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER    MUTIO  VITTELLESCHI.    397 

not  conscientiously  comply  with  this  request,  Don  Ber- 
nardino became  his  enemy,  as  well  as  that  of  the  entire 
society.  In  1644,  he  wanted  to  take  forcible  possession 
of  a  house  beloni;ing  to  the  Jesuits  of  Assumption.  The 
Governor,  Don  Gregorio,  interposed,  and  ordered  that  the 
Jesuits  should  retain  possession  of  their  own  house  in 
that  city  which  was  indebted  to  them  for  its  prosperity. 
The  prelate  forthwith  appealed  to  the  vicious  instincts  of 
the  Spaniards,  by  putting  forth  a  pamphlet,  in  which  he 
urged  them  to  expel  the  Jesuits,  tie  only  apostles  and 
the  only  upholders  of  the  liberty  of  the  Indians.  They 
alone  raised  obstacles  to  the  traffic  in  slaves,  and  deprived 
the  colonists  of  the  riches  they  might  have  acquired  by 
dealing  with  the  natives.  The  Spaniards  dcs'red  nothing 
better  than  to  find  such  a  support,  and  the  Bishop,  being 
assured  of  their  approbation,  had  recourse  to  the  extreme 
measure  of  excommunicating  the  Jesuits^  in  order  to  force 
them  to  withdraw, 

Don  Gregorio  learned  this  news,  and  ordered  six  hun- 
dred neophytes  to  take  up  arms  and  follow  him.  Thus 
accompanied,  he  appeared,  without  previous  notice,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Bishop,  and  announced  to  him  an  order  for 
his  banishment,  and  the  seizure  of  his  temporalities.  Don 
Bernardino,  who  little  expected  such  a  result,  found  him- 
self compelled  to  submit,  and  quitted  the  province,  hoping 
that,  sooner  or  later,  the  Spaniards,  to  whose  cupidity  he 
had  pandered,  would  expel  the  Jesuits  by  force  of  arms, 
and  triumphantly  recall  him. 

Thanks  to  these  energetic  measures  on  the  part  of  the 
Governor,  the  Jesuits  were  enabled  to  continue  the  work 
of  civilization,  whose  prodigious  results  had  exceeded  all 
anticipation. 

Soon  after,  on  the  29th  of  July,  1643,  Urban  VIII  departed 
this  lii'e,  and,  on  the  16th  of  December  of  the  same  year, 
he  was  succeeded  by  Cardinal  Pamphili,  under  the  name  of 


398  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Innocent  X.  Father  Mutio  Vittellesohi,  General  of  tho 
Society  of  Jesus,  during  whose  administration  so  many  and 
such  great  things  had  been  accomplished,  and  who,  by  his 
docility  and  humility,  had  merited  to  be  designated  "  The 
Angel"  by  Urban  VIII,  survived  that  Pontiff  but  a  few 
months.  He  died  February  9,  1G45,  leaving  the  society 
stronger,  greater,  and  more  extended  than  ever,  but  vio- 
lently menaced  by  the  new  sect  of  Jansenists,  of  which  a 
Protestant,  Dr.  Ranke,  says  :  "  If  we  attempt  to  character- 
ize the  relations  which  existed  between  the  Jansenists  and 
the  authorities  of  the  Church,  we  shall  be  forcibly  reminded 
of  the  spirit  of  the  early  Protestants."* 

•History  of  the  Popes,  Book  VIII,  1 12. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   VINCENT   CARAFFA.      399 


©encralsMj  of  latljcr  Winccnt  oTitniffa, 

SEVENTH   GENERAL. 
16<to  —  16-iO. 

I. 

On  the  21st  of  November,  1645,  eighty-eight  professed 
members,  composing  the  General  Congregation,  were  as- 
sembled in  the  Gesu.  Their  choice  fell  upon  Father 
Caraffa,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Andria.  He  was  sixty  years 
of  age,  but  he  gave  every  hope  of  living  long  for  the  good 
of  the  society. 

Before  separating,  the  Congregation  issued  several  de- 
crees, and  that  which  would  appear  inexplicable,  if  we 
had  not  already  so  often  seen  to  what  a  degree  the  holy 
self-denial  of  the  children  of  St.  Ignatius  could  attain,  is, 
that,  in  this  assembly,  the  professed  members  who  had 
come  from  France  and  the  Netherlands  did  not  trouble 
themselves  about  the  question  irr  which  they  were  almost 
personally  interested,  that  of  Jansenism.  Perhaps  they 
did  not  foresee  its  incalculable  consequences  on  the  future 
of  their  institute.  The  Congregation  was  dissolved  April 
14,  1646. 

In  that  same  year,  a  fact,  which,  for  the  noble  and  deli- 
cate manner  in  which  it  was  repaired,  would  have  redounded 
to  the  honor  and  glory  of  any  other  religious  institution, 
was  used  as  a  pretext  to  calumniate  once  more  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  Several  of  the  Spanish  colleges  were  frequently 
without   the   common   necessaries   of   life.     The    Jesuits, 


400  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

whose  charit}''  knew  no  bounds,  received  more  pupils  than 
they  had  means  to  support.  These  times  of  penury  were 
soon  alleviated  by  alms,  but  their  recurrence  was  frequent. 
A  Brother-coadjutor,  who  acted  in  the  capacity  of  Steward 
for  the  College  of  Seville,  believing  he  had  found  the  best 
and  surest  means  of  putting  a  stop  to  this  want,  entered 
into  commercial  speculation.  For  this  purpose,  he  had 
contracted  loans  and  purchased  merchandise,  with  which 
he  freighted  ships,  but  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
Fathers,  who  had  not  the  least  suspicion  of  such  transac- 
tions. Almighty  God  would  not  bless  an  undertaking 
which  did  not  emanate  from  his  inspiration,  and  which  the 
good  Brother  had  kept  secret  from  his  superiors.  Ship- 
wrecks and  miscalculations  destroyed  all  the  sanguine 
hopes  of  the  Brother,  and  the  borrowed  capital  disap- 
peared in  a  short  time,  without  producing  any  result  but  a 
ground  for  the  most  abominable  insinuations. 

The  creditors  made  a  demand  for  what  was  due  to  them. 
They  thought  they  had  advanced  the  money  to  the  Fathers, 
and  it  was  to  them  they  applied.  The  Fathers,  ignoring 
the  transaction,  asserted  that  they  had  not  contracted  any 
loans  ;  but,  the  advances  having  been  made  out  of  con- 
sideration for  them,  they  undertook  to  refund  the  whole, 
and,  Providence  aiding  them,  their  engagement  was  honor- 
ably fulfilled.  The  imprudent  Brother  was  expelled  the 
society,  and  sought  not  to  excuse  himself  by  accusing  the 
Fathers.  Far  from  it.  He  maintained,  until  his  death,  that 
he  had  never  consulted  them  about  it.  But  this  was  of  no 
avail.  Impiety,  heresy,  and  jealousy  have  said,  written,  and 
repeated  that,  in  1646,  "  the  Jesuits  had  become  br.nkrupt 
in  Seville,  which  event  had  plunged  several  families  into 
poverty."     Thus  is  history  written. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiflf  desired  to  prove  to  the  world  that 
these  calumnies  could  not  gain  access  to  the  Eternal  City. 
A  few  months  after  this  event,  and  while  the  Protestants 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  VINCENT   CARAFFA.       401 

and  Jansenists  profited  by  it,  with  the  greatest  ardor,  in 
1647,  Innocent  X  demanded  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  one  of 
its  members  for  the  Sacred  College.  That  Jesuit  was  John 
Casimir,  son  of  Sigismund  III,  King  of  Poland,  and  grand- 
son of  John  III,  King  of  Sweden.  His  mother,  second  wife 
of  Sigismund  III,  was  Constance,  daughter  of  Charles  of 
Austria.  John  Casimir  had  entered  the  novitiate  of  the 
Jesuits  on  the  25th  of  September,  1643.  He  was  then 
thirty-four  years  of  age,  and,  after  spending  only  four  years 
in  the  society,  the  Sovereign  Pontiflf  commanded  him  to 
accept  the  Cardinal's  hat.  Providence  had  its  designs  on 
John  Casimir.^ 

While  the  sect  which  owed  its  origin  to  hatred  and 
hostility  toward  the  Jesuits  labored  actively  at  its  work 
of  destruction,  a  member  of  the  illustrious  society,  a  Jes- 
uit, gave  a  painful  proof  that  the  spirit  of  ambition  was 
incompatible  with  the  spirit  of  that  holy  institute.  Father 
Jarrige,  feeling  that  he  possessed  the  ability,  virtues,  and 
capacity  necessary  for  the  most  important  pursuits,  took 
umbrage  at  the  fact  that  his  superiors  did  not  entertain  the 
same  opinion  of  him.  He  concealed  his  true  sentiments 
for  a  •time;  but,  finding  that  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
forty-one  years,  without  being  called  to  any  of  the  charges 
of  which  he  believed  himself  worthy,  he  desired  to  avenge 


*  This  Prince,  who  was  proclaimed  King  of  Poland,  November  20, 
1648,  on  the  death  of  his  brother,  (Wladislaus  VIII,  dying  without 
issue,)  the  Pope  relieved  him  from  his  vows,  commanded  him  to  reign 
for  the  good  of  Poland,  and  gave  him  a  dispensation  to  marry  Mary 
di  Gonzaga,  the  widow  of  his  brother  Wladislaus.  He  had  no  children. 
John  Casimir  V  was  crowned  on  the  17th  of  January,  1649.  He  ruled 
with  moderation  and  piety,  abdicated  at  the  Diet  of  Warsaw,  Sep- 
tember 18,  1668,  amid  the  regrets  of  his  subjects,  and  retired  to 
France.  Louis  XIV  gave  him  the  Abbey  St.  Germian-des-Pres,  where 
his  heart  is  deposited,  and  that  of  St.  Martin,  at  Nevers,  where  he 
died  on  the  15th  of  December,  1672.  His  remains  were  conveyed  to 
Warsaw. 


402  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

himself  on  the  entire  society.     The  unhappy  man  did  not 
reflect  that  his  soul  would  be  the  first  victim  of  his  pride 
and  ambition.     He  quitted  the  society  in  1647,  and  went 
to  La  Rochelle,  where  he  abjured  his  religion  before  the 
Calvinist  consistory,  on  the  25th  of  December.     He  knew 
that  in  France  apostasy  entailed  the  sentence  of  death  ; 
therefore  took  his  departure  for  Holland,   where  he  was 
received  by  the  heretics  with  frantic   joy.      Captures  of 
this  kind  were  rare  and  precious  for  them.     The  apostate 
did  not  stop  here.    He  ascended  the  pulpit  of  Leyden,  gave 
utterance    to   infamous  calumnies   against   the  Society  of 
Jesus,  and  then  published  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  Les  Jes- 
uites  mis  sur  V ecliafaud  pour  plusieurs  crimes  capitaux.''^ 
This  tissue  of  horrible  imputations  called  forth  general  in- 
dignation,  for  every  one  read   the  work  of  the    apostate 
Jesuit.     There  are  moments  wherein  it  seems  as  if  there 
was  a  thirst  for  falsehood  and  scandal.     The  heretics  them- 
selves found  that  the  calumniator  had  gone  too  far,  and 
candidly  told  him  that  he  asserted  too  much  to  be  believed. 
They  were  mistaken.     The  Jansenists  eagerly  seized  the 
occasion,  knowing  that  it  was  excellent  capital  on  which  to 
work.     They  had  nothing  but  praise  to  bestow  upon  the 
pamphlet,  the  autho^  of  which  they  despised. 

While  one  Jesuit  thus  denied  his  God,  and  was  burned 
in  effigy,  at  La  Ptochelle,  for  the  crime  of  apostasy,  others 
of  the  society  generously  gave  their  blood  and  sacrificed 
their  lives  for  the  upholding  of  the  faith.  On  the  20th 
of  February,  1647,  Brother  Cuthbert  Prescott  expired  in 
England  under  the  most  horrible  tortures.  On  the  13th 
of  September,  the  Independents,  under  Cromwell,  put  to 
death  seven  thousand  Irish  Catholics,  who  preferred  death 
to  apostasy.  Three  months  later,  Father  Edmund  Nevil, 
who  was  eighty-seven  years  of  age,  was  stripped  of  his 

*"  The  Jesuits  sentenced  to  the  scaffold  for  capital  ci'imea." 


GENERALSIIir  OF   FATHER  VINCENT    CARAFFA.      403 

garments,  cast  upon  a  pontoon,  and  thus  exposed  to  the 
inclement  winter  weather,  the  pangs  of  hunger,  the  tor- 
ments of  thirst,  the  insults  of  the  heretics,  and  the  out- 
rages of  the  Independents.  When  they  beheld  his 
strength  entirely  exhausted,  and  his  faith  as  firm  as  ever, 
they  gave  him  his  liberty.  Eight  days  afterward,  he  ex- 
pired from  the  effects  of  their  cruel  tortures. 

The  Jesuits,  martyred  by  the  government  of  Charles  I, 
likewise  suii'ered  at  the  hands  of  Cromwell.  This  did 
not  prevent  the  heretics  casting  on  the  society  all  the 
odium  of  a  revolution  which  had  just  sent  the  King  to 
the  scafi"old.  The  Calvinist  minister,  Peter  Jurien,  a 
Dutchman,  did  not  scruple  to  publish  that  calumny  in  his 
work  entitled  'Politique  du  Clerge  de  France^  and  on  which 
the  Jansenists  the  more  eagerly  seized,  because  the  Sor- 
bonne  publicly  protested  against  the  doctrine  of  Jansenius. 

In  the  same  year,  IGtQ,  Nicholas  Cornet,  Syndic  of 
the  Sorbonne,  denounced  the  book  AiigusfiJius^as  contain- 
ing several  heresies,  which  the  learned  faculty  reduced  to 
five,  and  of  which  the  remainder  of  the  work  was  but 
the  development.  The  theologians  of  the  University 
found  themselves  thus  unavoidably  in  the  Jesuits'  camp. 
The  blow  was  the  more  severe  for  Port  Royal.  The  >S'6»/- 
itaires  could  not  receive  it  without  resistins;  and  seeking 
to  prove  that  the  Jesuits  had  induced  the  Sorbonne  to 
take  this  step.  The  celebrated  Paul  de  Gondi  governed 
the  diocese  of  Paris,  under  the  title  of  Coadjutor  of  his 
uncle,  the  Archbishop.  The  Jansenists  knew  how  to 
flatter  him  and  win  his  friendship.  They  relied  upon  his 
support.  But  this  did  not  suflSce.  They  used  every 
means  in  their  power  to  obtain  the  assent  and  concur- 
rence of  some  other  prelates,  to  whom  the  influence  of 
the  Jesuits  gave  umbrage,  and  who,  they  knew,  were  dis- 
posed to  place  themselves  beneath  their  banner.  The 
storm  was  gathering. 
3G 


404  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

While  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  thus  menaced  in 
France,  persecuted  in  England,  and  calumniated  wherever 
a  heretic  was  to  be  found,  it  continued  to  pour  out  the 
blood  and  sacrifice  the  life  of  its  members  with  an  incom- 
parable liberality. 

Father  Jogues,  whom  we  left  returning  to  Canada,  ar- 
rived there  in  1646,  and  the  Iroquois  made  a  martyr  of 
him — a  martyr  whose  blood  would  generate  a  new  colony 
of  Christians.  Scarcely  had  the  holy  apostle  fallen  under 
the  axe  of  the  executioner,  when  the  tribe  of  the  Abnakis, 
neighbors  of  the  Iroquois,  sought  to  know  that  religion 
for  which  the  white  men  in  black  robes  unhesitatingly  gave 
their  lives.  The  Abnakis  sent  deputies  to  the  Keduc- 
tions,  and  the  latter,  charmed  with  the  marvels  they  had  wit- 
nessed, and  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  the 
principal  points  of  which  had  been  explained  to  them  by 
the  missionaries,  became  so  many  catechists  on  their  re- 
turn to  their  tribe.  They  soon  after  requested  that  some 
Fathers  of  this  new  doctrine  should  be  sent  to  them,  and, 
in  the  month  of  October  of  the  same  year,  1646,  Father 
Druillette  went  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  that  people  who 
were  so  well  disposed  to  receive  it.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Iroquois  marked  out  the  lleduction  of  St.  Joseph  as  an 
object  of  their  cruelty.  It  was  attacked  at  a  time  when 
the  women  and  children  were  alone,  under  the  protection 
only  of  the  good  Father  Daniel,  who  had  grown  gray 
among  them.  The  Father  was  immediately  pierced  with 
arrows,  but  he  still  breathed.  One  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Iroquois  rushed  upon  the  martyr  and  shot  him  down !  A 
few  months  after,  the  Iroquois  simultaneously  attacked  the 
lleductions  of  St,  Ignatius  and  St.  Louis,  which  were  in- 
habited by  the  Hurons.  The  neophytes  bravely  defended 
themselves ;  but,  overpowered  by  numbers,  they  were  either 
put  to  death  or  made  prisoners,  and  Fathers  de  Breboeuf 
and  Gabriel  Lalemant  were  led  into  captivity  with  thqm. 


GENERALSHIP   OF  FATHER   VINCENT  CARAFFA.      405 

Father  de  Breboeuf.  torn  to  pieces  by  the  savages,  ceased 
not  to  exhort   and   encourage  his  loved  neophytes.     The 
Iroquois  commanded  him  to  be  silent;   but  the  Jesuit  is 
essentially  an  apostle,  and  he  still  continued  his  exhorta- 
tions.    The  savages  surrounded  him  with  lighted  torches, 
which  they  used  in  order  to  compel  him  to  desist  from 
preaching.     The  apostle  preferred  to  obey  God  rather  than 
man.     lled-hot  irons  were  placed  around  his  neck.     The 
holy  man  blessed  God  for  this  intolerable  suffering,  which 
a  miraculous  grace  alone  could  give  him  the  strength  to 
endure;    and    Father    Lalemant,   who   was    enveloped    in 
pitched  branches,  to  which  they  were  about  to  apply  the 
torch,  cast  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  martyr,  and  begged 
his    blessing.     Father   de   Breboeuf   blessed    his   younger 
brother,  about  to  share  his  fate,  and  then  cast  a  glance  of 
love  and  resignation  toward  heaven.      The  Iroquois  saw  his 
angelic  smile,  and  wished  to  revenge  themselves  upon  his 
virtue.     They  had  just  killed  some  Frenchmen.     They  de- 
voured their  remains  in  sight  of  the  apostle.     They  next 
poured    boiling  water  on  his  head,   and    the  martyr  was 
crowned   in   heaven!     This  was  on  the    16th   of   March, 
1649.     On  the  following  day.  Father   Lalemant  went  to 
share  his  glorious    reward,   after   having  suffered   in  the 
flames  for  twelve  hours.* 

Such  were  the  heroes  of  that  society  so  relentlessly 
pursued  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  We  have  recorded  the 
anger  excited  in  Paraguay  by  the  wounded  pride  of  Don 
Bernardino  de  Cardenas.  The  prelate,  from  the  seclusion 
of  his  exile,  continued  to  foment  the  revengeful  feelings 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  he  relied  upon  the  support  of  Don 
Juan  de  Palafox,  Bishop  of  La  Puebla  de  los  Angelos, 
another  adversary  of  the  Jesuits. 


*See   a  graphic  account  of  these   martyrdoms  in  J.  G.   Shea's 
"Catholic  Missions,"  p.  184,  g  99.— Tr. 


406  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

Juan  de  Palafox  was  a  man  of  learning  and  virtue,  but 
of  a  mistrustful  and  restless  temperament.  The  Jesuit 
missionaries  enjoyed  many  privileges  which  had  been  ac- 
corded them  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs;  but,  whenever 
they  came  in  contact  with  a  bishop,  they  showed  the  most 
perfect  submission.  They  had  lived  on  the  best  of  terms 
with  Don  Juan  de  Palafox  up  to  the  time  of  the  conten- 
tions between  their  brethren  and  Don  Bernardino  de  Car- 
denas. 

When  the  latter,  a  refugee  at  Corrientes  since  1645,  and 
chagrined  by  his  exile,  had  caused  the  province  to  resound 
with  his  complaints  against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Don 
Palafox,  who  was  in  league  with  him,  exacted  tithes  and 
rents  from  the  Jesuits  of  his  diocese,  from  which  they 
were,  strictly  speaking,  entirely  exempted,  and  which  it 
was  not  the  custom  to  enforce.  The  Jesuits  refused  to 
submit  to  the  exaction.  The  prelate  persisted,  unmindful 
of  the  privileges  of  the  missionaries,  and  finally  suspended 
them  entirely.  On  the  25th  of  May,  1647,  he  wrote  to  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  submitting  the  question,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  permitted  himself  to  be  so  far  carried  away  as 
to  calumniate  the  Fathers,  by  accusing  them  of  several 
crimes  which  existed  only  in  his  imagination.  No  sooner 
had  his  letter  been  dispatched,  than  he  became  alarmed, 
left  his  episcopal  mansion,  and  retired  to  the  country  resi- 
dence of  Don  Jose  Maria  Mier,  by  whom  he  was  accom- 
panied, together  with  his  fimily  and  suite.  This  villa  was 
situated  near  Otomba,  and  adjoined  the  residence  of  the 
Jesuits,  a  coincidence  which  indicated  that  he  in  nowise 
feared  their  vengeance.  Nevertheless,  he  became  excited, 
and,  his  imagination  exaggerating  the  difficulties  of  the  po- 
sition in  which  he  had  placed  himself,  he  did  not  await 
the  Pope's  decision,  but  again  addressed  him,  on  January 
8,  1649.  After  uttering  fresh  calumnies  against  the  Jes 
uits,  he  wrote  to  Innocent  X  as  follows:  > 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  VINCENT  CARAFFA.       407 

"I  found  myself  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  mountains, 
there  to  seek,  in  the  company  of  scorpions,  serpents,  and  the  like 
venomous  reptiles,  the  security  and  peace  which  I  could  not  find  in 
the  midst  of  that  implacable  society  of  religious.  After  thus  pass- 
ing twenty  days  at  the  risk  of  my  life,  and  in  such  a  deficiency  of 
food  that  we  had  for  our  only  nourishment  the  bread  of  affliction, 
and  for  drink  our  tears,  we  at  length  discovered  a  small  hut, 
where  I  was  concealed  for  nearly  four  months.  Nevertheless,  the 
Jesuits  failed  not  to  use  every  exertion  to  discover  me,  in  which 
they  did  not  spare  money,  with  the  design  of  putting  me  to  death, 
after  having  compelled  me  to  resign  the  dignity  of  my  office." 

The  hut,  the  reptiles,  the  famine,  the  wild  and  hidden 
retreat,  were,  as  we  have  seen,  just  next  door  to  the  house 
of  the  Fathers. 

Copies  of  this  letter,  as  well  as  of  the  first,  had  been 
circulated  freely  among  the  enemies  of  the  society,  and 
were  sent  to  the  heretics  of  Europe,  and  the  Jansenists, 
their  allies,  rejoiced  in  the  calumny,  and  used  it  to  the 
profit  of  their  cause. 

The  Jesuits  of  the  diocese  of  Los  Angelos  submitted  to 
the  King  of  Spain  the  last  letter  addressed  to  the  Pope  by 
Don  Palafox,  while  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  court  of 
Rome.  The  prelate  was  informed  of  this  fact,  and  he  im- 
mediately wrote  to  the  King,  to  deny  that  he  had  addressed 
s&ch  a  letter  to  the  Pope,  and  highly  eulogized  the  Fathe'rs 
of  the  society. 

However,  on  the  14th  of  May,  1648,  a  brief  of  Inno- 
cent X  reiterated  the  opinion  of  the  Congregation  of  Car- 
dinals, and  equally  divided  the  praise  and  the  censure,  so 
as  to  conciliate  both  parties.  He  blamed  the  Bishop  for 
having  yielded  to  the  first  promptings  of  his  anger,  and 
especially  for  having  interdicted  religious  who  deserved 
no  censure.  He  censured  the  Jesuits  for  having  appealed 
to  a  temporal  judge,  instead  of  submitting  to  a  decision, 
which  might  be  unjust,  while  awaiting  the  judgment  of 
the  Holy  See. 
36* 


408  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

While  the  court  of  Rome  was  engaged  with  the  dispute 
which  had  arisen  between  the  Bishop  and  the  Jesuits,  Don 
Bernardino  de  Cardenas,  the  exiled  Bishop  of  Assump- 
tion, spread  the  rumor  that  the  Jesuits  of  Paraguay  had 
discovered  gold  mines,  which  they  secretly  worked,  and 
the  produce  of  which  they  sent  to  Rome.  The  European 
colonists  lost  no  time,  in  making  this  known,  and  de- 
ir.anding  that  the  Reductions  be  governed  by  officers  ap- 
pointed by  the  King,  and  not  by  the  Jesuits.  The  report 
of  their  complaints  having  reached  the  throne,  Philip  IV 
specially  commissioned  Don  Diego  Osorio,  the  new  Gov- 
ernor of  Paraguay,  strenuously  to  oppose  every  attempt 
at  hostility  against  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Don  Bernardino,  not  being  aware  of  these  instructions, 
and  knowing  only  that  there  was  a  change  of  Governor, 
nastened  to  his  diocese,  and  ordered  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits  from  the  Stations.  The  Fathers  retired,  and  the 
neophytes,  finding  themselves  forsaken  by  them,  took  flight, 
and  left  the  country  depopulated.  They  felt  convinced  that 
their  good  Fathers  were  only  removed  in  order  that  they 
themselves  might  the  more  readily  be  deprived  of  their 
liberty,  and  they  preferred  any  misfortune  to  that  of  slavery. 
The  magistrates  compelled  the  Jesuits  to  resume  the  control 
of  the  Reductions,  notwithstanding  the  order  of  the  Bishop 
At  first  only  a  portion  of  the  neophytes  returned,  so  much 
did  they  fear  the  Spanish  colonists. 

At  the  request  of  the  Father  Rector  of  the  house  at 

Buenos  Ayres,  a  commission  was  appointed  to  investigate 
the  matter  of  the  mines.  But  every  thing  tended  to  show 
the  utter  falsity  of  the  report.  "Nevertheless,"  said  the 
Bishop  of  Assumption,  "  I  have  the  fact  from  a  neophyte, 
who  has  lived  for  several  years  In  a  Reduction  of  Uruguay, 
and  I  can  vouch  for  his  veracity."  The  name  of  the  neo- 
phyte informer  was  Buenaventura.  He  declared  that  the 
mines  were  in  Uruguay,  but  he  coujd  not  indicate  the  spot. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  VINCENT  CARAFFA.      409 

lie  had  lived  in  thatRcduction,  and  witnessed  the  fact  which 
he  had  made  known,  and  yet  he  could  not  produce  the  proofs 
on  the  very  locality  where  he  averred  he  had  seen  the  mines  ! 
Search  was  still  continued,  however,  at  the  request  of  the 
Jesuits,  when  the  Governor,  Don  Diego  Osorio,  died. 

This  death  resuscitated  all  the  hopes  of  the  Bishop  of 
Assumption.  He  again  endeavored  to  excite  the  Span- 
ish colonists,  and,  confident  of  their  support,  he  expelled 
the  Jesuits  a  second  time.  His  first  attempt  had  no  other 
result  than  that  of  compromising  his  dignity  and  his  au- 
thority. He  hoped  to  be  more  successful  in  his  second. 
His  wounded  pride  blinded  his  judgment. 

The  Jesuits  who  were  on  missions  enjoyed  a  privilege 
which  they  saw  fit  to  make  use  of  in  this  emergency.  By 
a  Bull. of  Gregory  XIII,  they  were  empowered  to  appoint 
an  independent  judge,  to  whom  to  refer  any  differences 
that  might  arise  between  them  and  the  bishops,  and  the 
judge,  on  whom  the  same  Bull  conferred  the  right,  pro- 
nounced his  decision  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  See. 

Armed  with  this  privilege,  the  Jesuits  availed  themselves 
of  it,  and  selected  Father  Nolasco,  of  the  Order  of  Mercy, 
to  whom  they  submitted  their  case.  This  was  in  1649. 
Nothing  now  was  to  be  done  but  to  await  his  decision. 

The  venerable  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  whose 
tender  devotion  to  the  agony  of  our  Lord  had  suggested 
the  idea  of  an  association  of  prayers  and  good  works,  to 
obtain  the  grace  of  a  happy  death,  had  the  consolation  of 
witnessing  the  realization  of  that  pious  idea.  Pope  Innocent 
X  instituted  the  Confraternity  of  the  Bona  Mors,  at  Rome, 
on  the  2d  of  October,  1648.  A  few  months  subsequently, 
the  holy  religious  gave  the  most  affecting  example  of  the 
death  which  he  so  much  desired  for  all.  He  breathed 
his  last  on  the  8th  of  June,  1649.  Father  Florence  de 
Montmorency,  vicar-General,  appointed  a  Congregation, 
to  be  held  on  the  13th  of  December  of  the  same  year. 


410  HISTORi:  OF  THE    SOCIETY   OF  JESUS. 


^tueralsljip  of  |atl]tr  |rancis  ^iafllomiui, 

EIGHTH    GENERAL, 

AND     OF 

NINTH    GENERAL. 
164r9  —  1653. 

I. 

The  Congregation,  which  had  been  in  session  since  the 
13th  of  December,  cast  the  majority  of  its  votes  for  Father 
Piccolomini,  who  was  elected  and  proclaimed  Eighth  Gen- 
eral of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  on  the  21st  of  the  same 
month,  1649. 

Father  Alexander  de  Rhodes  was  at  Rome  at  this  time. 
He  was  sent  to  Europe,  by  his  superiors,  to  inform  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  of  the  state  of  the  Christian  colonies  of 
Tonquin  and  Cochin  China,  and  to  point  out  to  His  Holi- 
ness the  necessity  of  appointing  bishops  for  them,  and  of 
supplying  priests  for  the  numerous  neophytes.  Father 
de  Rhodes  had  travelled  by  way  of  Asia,  passing  through 
Persia,  Media,  Natolia,  and  Armenia,  making  himself  ac- 
quainted, on  the  way,  with  the  good  to  be  done,  or  to  be 
hoped  for,  in  those  various  countries. 

Pope  Innocent  X  received  with  fatherly  affection  this 
venerable  missionary,  who  had  labored  so  zealously,  and 
with  such  great  success,  in  Infidel  countries,  during  thirty- 
one  years,  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  langers  and  in  spite 
of  the  greatest  obstacles. 


GENERALSHIP  OP  PICCOLOMINI   AND  GOTTIFREDI.    411 

The  Pope  was  desirous  of  creating  him  Bishop  of  Cochin 
China,  but  the  holy  religious  could  not  be  prevailed  upon 
to  accept  the  dignity.  He  had  come  to  ask  the  Pope  for 
bishops,  but  he  also  sought  to  procure  independent  mis- 
sionaries, capable  of  becoming  parochial  pastors,  and  he 
wished  to  ask  these  missionaries  from  the  bishops  of  France, 
He  thought,  and  it  was  likewise  the  opinion  of  his  su- 
periors in  the  East,  that  these  priests  might,  under  the 
direction  of  their  bishops,  model  a  native  priesthood,  which 
"would  consolidate  and  uphold  Christianity  in  the  future. 
This  view  was,  also,  shared  by  the  Jesuits  of  Rome,  the 
Pope  approved  of  it,  and  it  was  decided  that  Father  de 
Rhodes  should  proceed  to  France  after  sojourning  at 
Rome  as  long  as  his  superiors  should  see  fit. 

In  the  following  year,  1550,  Father  Ponthelier,  who  was 
then  at  the  Hague,  heard  that  the  apostate  Jarrige  was 
likewise  in  that  city.  He  sought  an  interview  with  him, 
and,  after  several  conversations,  he  had  the  happiness  of 
seeing  the  heart  of  the  sinful  man  touched  Avith  com- 
punction. 

This  conversion  was  as  sincere  as  it  was  wonderful.  The 
States-General  of  Holland  had  pensioned  the  apostate,  but 
the  penitent  renounced  all  title  to  this  price  of  his  sin,  re- 
turned to  poverty,  and  accepted  the  shelter  proffered  him 
by  the  Jesuits  of  Antwerp,  whither  he  retired.  In  that 
city  he  afterward  published  a  book,  entitled  Retraction  de 
Jarrige^  in  which  he  charged  himself  with  calumny,  and 
retracted  all  that  he  had  written  against  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  The  penitent  had  much  to  atone  for,  and  he  knew 
it,  and  wished  to  show,  by  this  reparation,  all  the  sincerity 
of  his  sorrow.  He  placed  himself  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  and  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  latter 
sent  him  to  the  house  at  Paris,  there  to  remain  until  his 
status  should  be  finally  determined  by  the  court  of  Rome. 
The  Fathers  requested  permission  for  him  to  remain  in  the 


412  HISTORY   OF   THE    SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

world,  and  to  wear  the  dress  of  a  secular  priest,  without, 
however,  being  absolved  from  his  vows.  The  Pope  having 
acceded  to  this,  Jarrige  left  the  house  of  the  Jesuits,  set 
out  for  Tulle,  his  native  city,  and  there  led  a  most  edifying 
life.^  He  had  sojourned  six  months  with  the  Jesuits  in 
Paris,  and  he  had  himself  chosen  the  city  of  Tulle  for  his 
final  retirement.  The  Protestants  and  the  Jansenists 
maintained  that  the  Jesuits  had  hidden  him,  and  that  he 
died  in  a  dungeon.  It  was  not  difficult  to  visit  Tulle  to 
verify  the  contrary,  but  the  idea  of  doing  so  did  not  occur 
to  any  one.  It  is  so  much  more  convenient  blindly  to  be- 
lieve a  falsehood  than  to  take  the  trouble  to  seek  for  the 
truth,  even  when  penning  history. 

The  calumny  appeared  the  more  necessary,  at  this  time, 
to  the  Jansenists,  as,  in  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
clergy  of  France,  held  in  Paris  in  1650,  eighty-eight 
bishops  declared  that  the  five  propositions  taken  from 
the  Augustinus  were  heretical,  and  submitted  them  to 
the  Holy  See.  Irritated  by  this  defeat,  the  Jansenists 
openly  accused  the  Jesuits,  and  even  the  Abbe  Olier^  the 
founder  of  the  Congregation  of  St.  Sulpice,  of  having  gone 
so  far  as  to  employ  threats  to  obtain  the  signature  of  the 
bishops.  As  for  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  who  was  the  friend 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  shared  their  opinions  with  regard  to 
the  Augustinus,  the  Jansenists  confined  themselves  to  as- 
serting that  "  he  was  an  ignorant  bigot — a  semi-Pelagian, 
a  Molinist,  to  whom  the  bishops  yielded  in  order  to  be 
relieved  of  his  importunities."  Plainly  foreseeing  that 
the  five  propositions  would  be  condemned  at  Rome,  the 
Solitaires  of  Port  Royal,  who  had  eight  bishops  on  their 
side,  wished  to  try  and  balance  the  influence  of  the  op- 
posing party,  and  sent  deputies,  who  were  charged  to  sus- 
tain and  defend  the  Augustinus  before  the  Holy  See,  while 

*  He  died  on  the  26th  of  September,  1670. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  PICCOLOMINI  AND  GOTTIFREDI.    413 

professing  submission  to  the  decision  of  the  court  of  Eome. 
These  deputies  were  Louis  de  St.  ^Vraour,  Noel  de  la  Lane, 
and  Desmares.  The  Jansenists  having  their  advocates  at 
Rome,  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  the  Abbe  Olier,  and  Father 
Dinet,  the  King's  Confessor,  thought  it  but  right  that  the 
clergy  of  France  should  also  be  represented,  and  they  se- 
lected for  that  office  Doctors  Joisel,  Hallier,  and  La- 
gault.  Father  Brisacier  joined  them,  on  behalf  of  the 
Jesuits  at  Paris. 

The  conferences  were  opened  at  Rome  on  the  12th  of 
April,  1G51.  On  one  side,  the  Sorbonne,  eighty-eight 
bishops,  and  the  most  holy  personages  of  the  clergy  of 
France,  declared  against  the  doctrines  of  Jansenius.  On 
the  other  side,  eleven  bishops,  the  Solitaires,  all  men  of 
superior  acquirements,  and  whose  ambition  was  equal  to 
their  learning,  and  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal,  who  were 
joined  by  some  women  of  great  repute,  but  doubtful 
morals  declared  themselves  in  favor  of  Jansenism. 

The  Archbishop  of  Sens,  Louis  Henry  de  Gondrin,  al- 
though a  pupil  of  the  Jesuits,  to  whom  he  was  indebted 
for  his  advancement  to  the  See  which  he  filled,  had  de- 
voted himself,  body  and  soul,  to  the  Jansenist  party,  and 
did  not  hesitate  to  give  a  marked  proof  of  his  support. 
He  had  concealed  his  real  views  from  his  quondam  teach- 
ers, as  well  as  from  the  members  of  the  College  of  Sens, 
who,  full  of  confidence,  presented  themselves,  as  soon  as 
he  entered  upon  his  archiepiscopal  duties,  and  submitted 
to  his  authority,  as  regarded  the  privileges  which  the  so- 
ciety enjoyed  throughout  Catholic  Christendom.  The  new 
Archbishop  gave  them  his  approbation,  but,  shortly  after- 
ward, at  the  close  of  Lent,  prohibited  them  from  hearing 
confessions  durino-  Easter  week. 

Father  Nicholas  Godet,  rector  of  the  college,  immediately 
appealed  to  the  Holy  See,  which  had  the  eiFect  of  retard- 
ing the  action  of  the  Archbishop,  and  the  Fathers  con- 


414  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tinued  to  hear  confessions  as  before.  Of  this  the  prelate 
complained ;  but  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  having  given  the 
Jesuits  the  privilege  of  selecting  a  judge  from  among 
three  designated  prelates,  the  Fathers  placed  their  cause 
in  the  hands  of  the  Bishop  of  Senlis.  The  Archbishop 
of  Sens  appealed  to  Parliament.  The  King's  council  de- 
cided in  favor  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Jansenists  perceived, 
in  this  decision,  a  severe  blow  to  their  cause,  and  essayed 
to  embitter  the  quarrel  by  urging  Louis  de  Gondrin  to 
extremities. 

At  the  same  time,  an  event  was  about  to  occur,  which 
would  increase  the  irritation  already  existing  in  the  camp 
of  the  heretics. 

Christina  of  Sweden,  not  satisfied  with  the  system  of 
private  interpretation^  under  which  she  had  been  educated, 
felt  the  great  necessity  or  an  authority  to  which  she  could 
yield  in  matters  of  faith.  The  more  she  examined  the 
different  sects  emanating  from  Lutheranism,  the  more  did 
she  perceive  that  not  a  single  one  of  them  was  based  upon 
an  authority  calculated  to  inspire  her  with  that  confidence 
which  she  desired  to  feel.  Christina  was  conversant  with 
all  the  European  languages,  and  had,  also,  a  knowledge  of 
Greek  and  Latin.  Her  life  was  spent  in  the  most  pro- 
found study,  and  she  sought  the  conversation  of  philos- 
ophers and  the  learned,  with  as  much  ardor  as  any  other 
of  her  sex  could  have  shown  for  the  most  attractive 
pleasures.  As  a  Queen,  she  was  compelled  openly  to 
profess  that  Lutheranism,  of  which  the  aridity  was  so. 
odious  to  her,  and  she  was  obliged  to  conceal  her  procliv- 
ity for  Catholicism  in  order  not  to  excite  a  revolution  in 
her  states. 

Christina  ordinarily  treated,  in  person,  on  the  most  im- 
portant matters,  with  the  ambassadors  accredited  to  her 
court.  On  one  occasion,  in  the  early  part  of  the  year 
1650,  Don  Jose  Pinto   Pereira,  Portuguese   Ambassador, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  nCCOLOMINI   AND    GOTTIFREDI.    415 

was  presented  to  her,  accompanied  by  an  interpreter. 
This  interpreter  was  a  Portuguese,  Don  Antonio  JMacedo. 
The  Queen  was  struck  with  his  mildness.  She  determined 
to  see  him  in  private,  and  satisfy  her  mind  upon  all  the 
doubts  with  which  she  was  troubled. 

At  the  first  non-official  interview,  the  young  Queen, 
knowin<r  that  those  around  her  could  not  understand  what 
she  said,  addressed  him  in  Portuguese,  saying  that  she 
perceived  that  he  was  a  priest. 

"  I  am,  indeed,  a  priest,"  replied  Don  Antonio  Macedo, 
"and  I  belong  to  the  Society  of  Jesus." 

Christina  advised  him  to  be  prudent,  promised  secrecy, 
and  acquainted  him  with  her  desire  to  have  some  conver- 
sations with  him,  seemingly  on  politics,  but,  in  reality,  to 
obtain  his  views  on  religious  matters.  From  that  moment, 
she  saw  him  frequently,  and,  on  each  occasion,  felt  her 
mind  more  and  more  enlightened. 

One  day,  in  the  early  part  of  1651,  Don  Antonio  Ma- 
cedo suddenly  disappeared  from  Stockholm.  "  The  Queen 
feigned  to  have  him  sought  for,"  says  Leopold  Ranke,* 
"  but  it  was  she,  in  fact,  who  had  sent  him  to  Rome,  to 
communicate  to  the  General  of  the  Jesuits  her  intentions, 
and  to  request  that  he  would  send  some  of  his  members 
to  Sweden.  They  arrived  at  Stockholm  in  the  month  of 
February,  1652,  introducing  themselves  as  Italian  gentle- 
men, on  a  tour,  and  were,  of  course,  invited  to  the  Queen's 
table.  She  divined,  at  once,  who  they  were,  and,  when 
they  entered  the  dining-room,  she,  in  a  low  tone  of  voice, 
said  to  one  of  them,  "Perhaps  you  have  letters  for  me?" 
'■  Yes,"  replied  he,  without  turning  round.  She  suggested 
that  he  should  hold  no  conversation  with  any  one;  and, 
dinner  over,  she  sent  a  confidential  messenger,  John  Holm, 
for  the  letters,  and,  on  the  following  day,  the  Jesuits,  by 


*  History  of  the  Popes,  Book  III,  g  9. 
37 


416  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

her   direction,   were    conducted   to   the   palace   with    tha 
greatest  secrecy. 

"Thus,"  continues  our  Protestant  historian,  "in  the 
royal  palace  of  Grustavus  Adolphus,  envoys  from  Rome 
met  the  daughter  of  that  monarch,  who  was  the  most 
zealous  defender  of  Protestantism,  to  treat  with  her  on  the 
subject  of  her  conversion  to  Catholicism." 

These  two  Jesuits  thus  sent  from  Rome  were  Fathers 
Paul  Casati  and  Francesco  Molinio. 

The  English  mission  augmented  daily  the  already  great 
number  of  the  martyrs  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Father 
William  Boyton  had  induced  several  Catholics  to  take 
refuge  in  the  small  town  of  Cashel,  where  he  remained 
with  them,  consoling  and  strengthening  them  in  the  faith 
by  his  pious  exhortations,  and  by  the  consolations  of  his 
humble  but  powerful  ministry.  On  one  occasion,  a  great 
number  of  Irish  Catholics,  who  had  been  chased  from 
all  parts,  and  were  pursued  by  the  Independents  of  the 
Cromwellian  army,  took  refuge  in  Cashel,  where  they 
sheltered  themselves  in  the  church  of  St.  Patrick.  Father 
Boyton  had  no  doubt  that  the  bloodthirsty  Independents 
would  enter  the  church  and  murder  their  victims,  and  this 
was  an  additional  reason  for  him  not  to  leave  them  with- 
out spiritual  succor  at  this  critical  and  trying  moment. 
He  hastened  into  the  midst  of  these  faithful  Christians, 
and,  while  he  was  preparing  them  for  martyrdom,  the  sol 
diery  rushed  into  the  edifice  and  massacred  them  all. 
Father  Boyton  accompanied  them  to  receive  their  heav- 
enly reward.  Tliis  was  on  the  15th  of  June,  1649.  A 
few  months  later,  Cromwell  doomed  to  death  any  one  who 
should  harbor  a  Jesuit,  even  but  for  a  few  moments. 
Fathers  Robert  Netervil,  Henry  Cavel,  and  John  Hath 
were  discovered  and  executed.  Father  Worthington,  also, 
suffered  martyrdom  a  few  days  after.  On  the  26th  of 
February,  1650,  a  fresh  decree  proclaimed  that  those  who 


GENERALSHIP  OF  PICCOLOMINI   AND   GOTTIFREDI.    417 

discovered  the  hiding-place  of  a  Jesuit  should  receive  a 
reward  as  great  as  was  offered  for  the  apprehension  of  the 
vilest  malefactor.  Thus  it  was  that  they  succeeded  in 
seizing  and  imprisoning  all  the  Fathers  who  were  dispersed 
throuiihout  Great  Britain.  Cromwell  asserted  that  the 
Republic  sought  not  their  blood  ;  but  Father  Peter  Wright 
was,  nevertheless,  executed  as  a  common  felon,  on  the 
29th  of  May,  1651. 

There  remained  now  in  Ireland  only  eighteen  Jesuits. 
The  rest  had  all  suffered  martyrdom;  and  Fathers  Lee, 
Kilkenny,  James  Walsh,  George  Dillon,  Dowdal,  and 
Brother  Brian  fell  victims  to  their  devotion  toward  the 
pest-stricken.  After  the  last  decrees  of  banishment,  the 
surviving  Fathers  found  themselves  compelled  to  hide  in 
forests  and  ravines,  their  only  means  of  subsistence  being 
roots  and  wild  herbs.  Father  John  Carolan  perished 
from  exposure  to  the  inclement  weather.  Those  who  fared 
best  were  they  who  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  find  a 
cavity  in  the  steepest  rocks.  This  life  of  continuous  pri- 
vation, unceasing  peril,  and  perpetual  suffering  did  not 
lessen  the  zeal  of  these  disciples  of  St.  Ignatius.  The  Irish 
and  English  Fathers  residing  on  the  Continent  held  them- 
selves in  readiness  to  proceed  to  their  native  country  on 
the  first  signal  from  their  superiors.  Cromwell  was  aware 
of  this,  and  he  desired  to  extinguish  that  ardent  zeal  by 
withdrawing  from  it  all  support.  The  children  of  Cath- 
olics were  forcibly  carried  off  in  great  numbers,  forced 
to  the  place  of  embarkation,  huddled  together  in  vessels, 
and  shipped  to  North  America.  In  spite  of  Cromwell, 
the  Jesuits  were  there  to  receive  the  victims  of  the  her- 
etical intolerance  of  the  tyrant  Republican  ;  for  the  mis- 
sions prospered  there,  fertilized  by  the  blood  of  the  first 
apostles,  who  had  prepared  the  way. 

In  New  France,  the  Iroquois  were  still  the  terror  of 
the    neophytes.     On    the    7th    of  December,    they  made 


418  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

an  irruption  into  the  colony  of  St.  John,  which  was  di- 
rected by  Father  Gamier.  The  neophytes  went  to  meet 
them,  determined  to  conquer  or  to  die.  But  the  savages 
had  eluded  them,  and  advanced  to  the  attack  of  the  Re- 
duction by  another  route.  The  Jesuit  advised  his  unfor- 
tunate flock  of  women  and  children  to  fiee.  As  for  him- 
self, he  remained  to  take  care  of  the  wounded ;  for  the 
Iroquois  fired  in  every  direction,  desiring  nothing  less 
than  the  death  of  all  the  Christians.  Father  Gamier  re- 
ceived two  balls  at  the  same  instant.  With  that  admira- 
ble resignation  and  courage  which  has  ever  distinguished 
the  heroes  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  he  rose  to  give  abso- 
lution to  those  who  were  dying  around  him.  He  again 
fell  wounded,  and  this  time  had  not  strength  to  rise. 
But  the  heroic  apostle  still  lived  ;  he  could  still  perform 
a  last  act  of  his  heavenly  ministry;  his  last  aspiration 
might  mingle  with  the  words  of  absolution,  and  ascend  to 
heaven  for  the  beloved  neophyte  who  was  about  to  ex- 
pire. The  good  Father  dragged  himself,  on  his  knees,  to 
the  side  of  the  dying  convert,  upon  whom  he  pronounced 
the  words  of  reconciliation,  and,  at  the  very  moment,  two 
blows  from  a  tomahawk  put  an  end  to  his  worldly  exist- 
ence, and  opened  for  him  the  portals  of  heaven. 

Father  Noel  Chabanel  led  his  Christian  colonists  in 
their  attack  upon  the  savage  tribe.  They  had  a  long 
march  to  make,  through  snow-covered  forests,  and  many 
obstacles  to  encounter.  Suddenly  the  neophytes  discov- 
ered that  their  good  Father  had  disappeared.  They 
halted,  and  had  no  thought  for  any  thing  but  his  recov- 
ery. They  desired,  at  all  hazards,  to  find  him;  but  they 
sought  him  in  vain.  God  alone  knows  the  fate  of  the 
holy  missionary,  who  was  never  afterward  heard  of.* 

*  Shea  relates  that  he  was  killed  by  an  apostate  Huron,  and  cast 
into  a  river.  He  ibunds  his  statement  on  the  confession  of  the  mur- 
derer.— A7n.   Oath.  Miss.,  p.  194,  2\^ote. — Tr. 


GENERALSHIP  OP  PICCOLOMINI  AND   GOTTIFREDI.    419 

In  the  island  of  St.  Joseph,  the  Christian  natives,  who 
were  incessantly  menaced  by  the  savages,  begged  their 
missionary,  Father  Ragueneau,  to  conduct  them  to  a  place 
of  safety,  under  the  protection  of  the  French  guns.  The 
Father  called  them  together,  and  marched  with  them, 
across  rivers,  mountains,  and  forests,  and,  at  the  end  of 
fifty  days,  reached  Quebec,  intrusted  the  care  of  his  peo- 
ple to  the  Governor  of  the  place  and  to  the  good  Sisters 
of  Charity,  and  then  returned  to  make  fresh  conquests. 

In  Paraguay,  the  sentence  of  banishment  pronounced 
against  the  Jesuits,  by  the  Bishop  of  Assumption,  was  set 
aside. 

Father  Nolasco,  whom  they  had  selected  as  judge,  in 
accordance  with  their  privilege,  condemned  Don  Bernar- 
dino de  Cardenas,  by  sentence  dated  October  19,  1649,  and 
Don  Gabriel  de  Perolta,  Dean  of  the  Chapter  of  Assump- 
tion, had,  by  the  same  title  as  the  Superior  of  the  Order 
of  Mercy,  given  judgment  against  the  partisans  of  the 
prelate.  The  judges  having  then  ordered  the  Jesuit 
Fathers  to  be  reinstated,  Don  Sebastian  de  Leon,  Gov- 
ernor of  Paraguay,  ad  interim^  undertook  its  execution. 

Don  Bernardino  was  condemned  by  all  the  powers,  both 
ecclesiastical  and  secular.  It  was  demonstrated  that  his 
wounded  pride  was  the  only  motive  for  his  enmity  to  the 
Jesuits ;  and  this  was  the  only  claim  he  had  for  the  es- 
teem of  the  Jansenists,  who  could  not  too  highly  com- 
mend him.  They  constituted  him  a  martyr  to  the  Jesuits, 
the  most  holy  of  prelates,  the  hero  of  the  old  and  the 
new  world.  There  was  no  calumny  which  they  did  not 
bring  against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  regarding  Don  Juan 
de  Palafox  and  Don  Bernardino  de  Cardenas,  and  these 
calumnies  have  been  converted  into  historical  facts,  for 
the  use  of  those  who  reflect  but  little  and  investigate  still 
less.  The  number  of  such  is  well  known. 
37* 


420  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

The  missions  of  China  flourished,  despite  the  civil  wars 
which  disturbed  the  empire.  The  Jesuits  sided  neither 
with  the  rightful  heirs  of  the  Emperor,  Van  Lie,  nor  with 
the  Tartar  usurper,  but  devoted  themselves  to  the  salva- 
tion of  the  two  races,  in  order  that  their  labors  might  be 
the  more  beneficial  to  the  Chinese  people.  The  descend- 
ants of  Van  Lie  had  withdrawn  to  the  south  of  the  em- 
pire, and  Jun-Lie  had  just  been  proclaimed  Emperor  by 
several  southern  provinces.  His  family  retained  with 
them  Fathers  Coeffler  and  Michael  Boym,  who  had  con- 
verted them  to  Christianity.  The  Empress,  who  had 
taken  the  name  of  Helen,  gave  birth,  in  1650,  to  a 
son,  who,  in  baptism,  received  the  name  of  Constantine, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Emperor.  In  the  year  following, 
1651,  this  princess  desired  to  write  personally  to  the  Sov- 
ereign Pontiif,  in  order  to  evince  her  submission  and  re- 
spect. She  begged  Father  Michael  Boym  to  act  as  her 
ambassador  to  the  Pope,  and  to  bear  to  him  her  letter, 
which  contained  the  expression  of  her  filial  piety  for  the 
Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  earth. 

Father  Adam  Schall  was  still  at  Pekin,  where  he  was 
admired  by  the  learned,  received  with  honor  by  the  Tar- 
tar princes,  and  regarded  by  all  as  an  extraordinary  per- 
sonage, whose  equal  in  learning  and  virtue  was  not  to  be 
found.  But  he  performed  the  work  of  God  with  the  most 
profound  humility,  in  the  midst  of  all  these  marks  of 
honor  and  distinction,  and  lost  nothing  of  the  true  spirit 
of  the  society. 

Meanwhile,  the  Father-General,  Francis  Piccolomini, 
died,  ou  the  17th  of  June,  1651.  Father  Goswin  Nickel, 
Vicar-General,  convened  the  General  Congregation  of  the 
professed  members  of  the  provinces  for  the  election  of 
his  successor.  They  assembled  at  Home,  on  the  7th  of 
January,    1652,    and,    on    the    21st   of   the    same  month, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  nCCOLOMINI  AND  GOTTIFllEDI.    421 

elected,  for  the  Ninth  General  of  the  society,  Father  Alex- 
ander Gottifredi.  The  members  were  about  to  separate, 
when  suddenly  their  new  chief  was  taken  from  the  society. 
He  died  on  the  12th  of  March,  two  months  after  his  elec- 
tion. On  the  17th  of  the  same  month,  the  Congregation 
proclaimed  Father  Goswin  Nickel  Tenth  General  of  his 
Order. 


END  OF    VOLUAIE  I. 


HISTORY 


OP     THE 


Society  of  Jesus, 


FROM 


Its  Foundation  to  the  Present  Time. 

In  T^vo  Voluines, 

^ranslateb  from  ll^e  ^um\^  of  |.  ||l.  ^.  Jlaurignat, 

By   James   Clements, 

Author  of  "T/ie  Life  of  Sir  Robert  Peel." 

Secm^»?E^isb»  {Edition. 

With  jy^^ppEi^:jCF]^OM  1862  to  1877. 


*  i'ws>  * 


t^JW 


i 


<?i 


<: 


■%/rY  ^N^^"""" 


BALTIMORE: 

Published  by  John  Murphy  &  Co. 

182   Baltimore   Street 
1878. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1878,  by 

JOHN   MURPHY, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 


«inttrnlsl)ij  0f  lallrer  6a$[m  Pcliel, 

TENTH   GENERAL. 

16  5  3  —  166  1. 
I. 

The  conferences,  relative  to  the  five  propositions  con- 
demned by  the  Sorbonne  and  the  clergy  of  France,  had 
been  in  session  for  eleven  months,  when  Father  Nickel 
was  called  to  govern  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  depu- 
ties of  the  Jansenists,  true  to  the  instructions  they  had 
received,  endeavored  to  prolong  the  discussions  by  fre- 
quent digressions,  and  by  attributing  to  the  Jesuits  every 
conceivable  heresy  and  every  possible  crime.  They  were 
aware  that  the  propositions  would  be  condemned,  because 
the  theologians  of  the  University  of  Paris,  the  French 
Episcopacy,  and  the  Society  of  Jesus  declared  them  heret- 
ical, and  they  wished  to  injure  the  Jesuits  by  calumny, 
feeling  that  they  could  not  prevent  their  triumph  in  the 
controversy. 

Pope  Innocent  X  personally  examined  into  the  prop- 
ositions submitted  to  the  theologians  wlio  composed  the 
conferences,  and,  after  having  heard  tlie  results  of  their 
labors,  and  maturely  considered  the  diiferent  opinions, 
declared,  by  a  Bull,  dated  JMay  31,  1653,  that  the  five 
propositions  were,  in  fact,  contained  in  the  Au^usfinus,  and 


4  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

that  the  Holy  See  regarded  them  as  heretical,  and,  hence, 
condemned  them.  * 

The  Jansenist  deputies,  irritated  by  this  foreseen  re- 
sult, redoubled  their  efforts  to  ruin  the  Jesuits  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  members  of  the  Sacred  College  and  that  of 
the  Pope.  It  appeared  to  them  that,  if  they  could  suc- 
ceed in  accomplishing  this,  the  effect  of  the  Bull  would 
be  materially  lessened. 

The  Solitaires  of  Port  Royal  had  declared  that  they 
would  submit  to  the  decision  of  the  Holy  See.  They 
had  proclaimed  their  entire  obedience  to  the  Vicar  of 
Jesus  Christ,  but,  the  Pontifical  decision  not  being  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  wishes,  they,  in  their  wounded  pride, 
thought  but  of  propagating  and  upholding  the  doctrines 
which  the  Apostolical  Bull  condemned.  To  this  end,  they 
joined  the  Fronde^  and  became  enthusiasts  in  favor  of 
Cardinal  de  Retz,  to  whom  they  ascribed  every  virtue  of 
which,  unhappily,  they  knew  him  to  be  devoid.  With 
him,  they  had  the  majority  of  the  parishes  of  Paris:  for, 
the  Archbishop  being  dead,  the  Cardinal  had  sucoeded 
him.  Backed  by  this  support,  the  Jansenists  declared 
that  they,  in  conjunction  with  the  Church,  condemned 
the  five  propositions;  but  that  these  propositions,  not 
being  contained  in  i\\e  Augiistinus^  could  not  be  attributed 
to  the  doctrine  of  Jansenius,  and  that  the  Jesuits  alone 
had  maintiiincd  their  having  been  found  therein.  They 
added  that  it  was  only  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  that 
had  brought  about  the  condemnations  pronounced,  in 
France  and  at  Rome,  against  the  book  of  the  learned 
Bishop  of  Ypres,  and  with  the  purpose  of  arousing  a 
feeling  of  prejudice  against  Port  Royal.  By  thus  setting 
themselves  forth  as  the  victims  of  the  Jesuits,  the  de- 
sciples  of  Jansenius  hoped  to  rise  in  public  favor,  and 
augment  the  number  of  their  partisans. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Archbishop  of  Sens,  yielding  to 


GEiJEIlALSIIIP  OF   FATHEH   GOSWIN   NICKEL.  5 

tlieir  solicitations,  hud  recourse  to  the  most  extreme  meas- 
ures. Several  admonitions,  addressed  to  the  Fathers  of  the 
college,  not  having  had  the  effect  he  had  auticii)ated,  he 
administered  a  last  blow  by  excommunicating  them,  on  the 
2Gth  of  January,  1653. 

The  rector  of  the  college,  in  giving  an  account  of  this 
affair  to  the  Father-General,  asked  him  to  urge  the  Pope 
to  adopt  measures  for  bringing  back  the  prelate  to  a  course 
more  becominii;  the  dignity  of  his  high  position,  and  less 
detrimental  to  religion.  The  General  preferred  leaving  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  to  act  according  to  his  own  uninfluenced 
iud<2;ment,  and  he  ordered  his  religious  to  submit  to  the 
interdict.  The  King  and  the  Pope  knew  that  the  Arch- 
bishop only  acted  thus  at  the  instigation  of  the  Solitaires 
of  Port  Royal.  It  was,  then,  more  prudent  to  avoid  every 
thing  which  might  provoke  ill  feeling  and  increase  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  position.  Matters  ^  ent  so  far,  that  the  whole 
of  France  was  divided  into  two  factions,  and  it  became 
necessary  for  every  one  to  be  prepared  to  declare  himself 
on  the  one  side  or  the  other — to  be  Jansenist  or  Molin- 
ist.  Neutrality  was  not  recoguized  in  good  society.  The 
reader  must  not  be  astonished  to  hear  that  it  was  the  fashion 
to  argue  at  random  on  questions  which  belonged  strictly 
to  theologians  to  treat  understandingly,  and  which  every 
body  aflfected  to  discuss,  whether  at  court  or  in  the  city. 
In  the  most  insignificant  parties,  at  the  ball  or  at  the  theatre, 
one  might  listen  to  the  most  lively  conversations  on  such 
subjects  as  Divine  Grace,  free-will,  predestination,  and  all 
this,  with  as  much  confidence  as  if  the  question  to  be  de- 
cided was  a  ribbon  or  a  song.  The  Fronde  declared  itself 
for  the  Jansenists,  and  the  Mazarin  party  for  the  Jesuits, 
and  each  caused  sufficient  commotion  to  produce  an  effect. 
The  magistrates  themselves  seemed  only  to  be  preoccupied 
with    the    Solitaires    or    the    Jesuits.      The    middle    classes 

soon  began,  in  like  manner,  to  entertain  their  Jansenist  or 
38 


6  HISTORY    OP   THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Molinist  opinions,  and,  finally,  in  all  ranks  of  society,  men 
had  no  other  topic  of  conversation  than  La  Fronde  or  Maz- 
arin,  the  Jesuits  and  Port  Royal. 

The  Fathers  did  not  cease  to  labor  in  the  work  of  God 
with  a  zeal  as  indefatigable  as  it  was  enlif^htened.  Father 
Bagot  collected  a  number  of  young  men,  who,  without 
having  a  religious  vocation,  felt  themselves  called  to 
the  apostleship  of  distant  missions,  and  formed  them  for 
that  life  of  hardship  and  continuous  peril.  Father  de 
Rhodes  reached  Paris,  which  city  he  visited  for  the  pur- 
pose of  soliciting  young  priests  for  the  East.  He  saw  the 
disciples  of  Father  Bagot,  and  twelve  of  them  accompanied 
him  on  his  return.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  Society  of 
Foreign  Missions.  It  was  the  disciples  of  Father  Bagot, 
a  Jesuit,  who  founded  it  under  his  inspiration,  and  with 
his  counsels  and  experience. 

Father  de  Rhodes  established  the  young  missionaries  in 
the  colonies  which  he  had  himself  formed,  and  then,  with 
the  sanction  of  the  Father-General,  set  out  for  Persia, 
where  he  founded  a  new  mission,  and  where  he  died,  in 
1660,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine. 

Father  Robert  Nobili,  nephew  of  Bellarmine,  lost  his 
sight  during  his  mission  to  iMadura ;  but  yet  he  did  not 
abandon  his  dear  Indians.  Having,  in  the  first  place,  re- 
tired to  the  College  of  Jafnapatam,  and  then  to  that  of 
San-Thome,  he  had  continued  his  labors  in  the  different 
languages  of  those  countries,  so  as  to  facilitate  their  study 
fur  his  successors,  and  he  died,  during  that  arduous  occu- 
pation, on  the  16th  of  January,  1656,  in  the  eightieth  year 
of  his  age.  His  tomb,  erected  a  short  distance  from  3Ia- 
dura,  is  still  held  in  high  veneration  by  the  Indians. 

Ip  North  America,  the  Iroquois  continued  to  send  mar- 
tyrs to  heaven.  In  1652,  Father  James  Buteux  fell  dead, 
pierced  by  the  bullets  of  that  tribe  of  savages,  and  Father 
Poncet  had  his  fingers  cut  off,  a  few  months  after.     At  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER   GOSWIN   NICKEL.  7 

same  time,  lie  heard  from  a  Cliristian  woman  that  the  coun- 
cil of  the  tribe  were  deliberatinj:;  on  the  means  of  escaping 
the  French,  fearinc;  that  the  latter  would  call  them  to  ac- 
count  for  the  many  murders  that  had  been  perpetrated. 
The  Jesuit,  forgetting  his  own  painful  wounds,  hastened 
to  the  council,  proposed  to  them  terms  of  peace,  and 
promised  them,  in  the  name  of  France,  that  the  past  should 
be  forirotten.  The  chiefs  of  the  tribe,  elated  and  charmed 
■with  the  goodness  of  the  missionary,  bore  him  in  triumph 
to  the  Governor.  Peace  was  signed  with  the  five  tribes, 
and  the  Gospel  could  now  be  propagated  with  less  peril. 

In  Mexico,  Brazil,  Peru,  and  Paraguay,  the  missionaries 
extended  their  conquests  daily,  and  founded  new  Reduc- 
tions. Civilization  made  as  rapid  a  progress  as  Christianity, 
and  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  adventurers,  who  composed 
the  European  colonies,  could  not  find  sufiicient  maledic- 
tions to  heap  upon  those  Jesuits  who  thus  deprived  them 
of  the  traffic  with  the  natives.  John  IV  of  Braganza  had 
accorded  to  the  missionaries  the  same  privileges  as  the  King 
of  Spain,  that  of  freeing,  in  his  name,  every  native  who 
should  become  a  child  of  God  and  of  the  Church,  by  bap- 
tism and  by  the  practice  of  the  duties  of  Christianity. 
The  colonists,  rendered  furious  by  this  fresh  favor  granted 
to  the  Christians,  through  the  intervention  of  the  Jesuits, 
declared  that  they  were  ruined,  and  that  they  were  justified 
in  using  any  means  to  rid  themselves  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
society.  Father  Antonio  Yieira  landed  at  the  very  moment 
of  this  outburst  of  European  avarice,  and  the  colonists 
sought  to  put  him  to  death,  in  order  to  make  him  pay  the 
penalty  of  his  Christian  charity.  But  Almighty  God  pre- 
served the  apostle  for  other  encounters,  and  for  new  and 
wonderful  labors. 

In  Sweden,  Fathers  de  Macedo,  Casati,  and  Molinio  suc- 
cessfully continued  their  labors  with  the  Queen.  On  the 
2I:th  of  June,  1654,  Her  Majesty  solemnly  abdicated,  in  spite 


8  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  the  heart-felt  regrets  of  her  subjects.  Her  abjuration 
took  place  at  Innspruck,  November  5,  1655.  She  pro- 
ceeded at  once  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Our  Lady  of  Loretto, 
and  laid  her  sceptre  and  her  crown  at  the  feet  of  the  Most 
Blessed  Virgin,  and  then  set  out  for  Rome,  there  to  receive 
the  blessing  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff. 

It  was  no  longer  Innocent  X  who  filled  the  chair  of  St. 
Peter,  His  Holiness  having  died  on  the  5th  of  January. 
On  the  7th  of  April,  Cardinal  Chigi  succeeded  him,  under 
the  name  of  Alexander  VII. 

II. 

Don  Juan  de  PALAFOxhad  been  translated  from  the  See 
of  Angelopolis,  or  Los  Angelos,  to  that  of  Osma,  a  small 
city  of  Old  Castile,  in  Spain.  Ever  restless  and  unsettled, 
in  spite  of  his  admitted  learning  and  eminent  virtues,  he 
sowed  discord  in  his  diocese,  and,  having  no  further  power 
to  annoy  the  Jesuits,  he  visited  his  ill-humor  on  the  officers 
of  the  government,  and  was  not  long  before  he  made 
himself  enemies,  and  alienated  every  one.  King  Philip 
IV  felt  it  necessary  to  put  a  stop  to  his  turbulent  spirit 
by  threatening  him  with  his  displeasure.* 

The  Jesuits  were  more  than  justified  by  the  excitement 
which  Don  Juan  de  Palafox  had  caused  in  Spain,  and  of 
which  the  King  loudly  complained;  but  the  Jansenists 
would  listen  to  nothing  but  the  calumnious  accusations 
made  by  the  prelate*  against  the  Jesuits  of  Paraguay,  and, 
consequently,  against  the  entire  society.  These  calumnies 
were  weapons  for  them,  and  they  never  allowed  an  oppor- 
tunity to  pass  without  making  use  of  them.  They  felt, 
however,  that  the  halo  of  persecution  was  about  to  fail 
them,  as  the  Jesuits  allowed  them  to  act  and  talk  withoat 
appearing   the   least   disconcerted.       Singlin,    Le    Maitre, 

*  Archives  of  the  Finances  of  Spain. 


GKNKRALSIIIP    OF    FATHER    GOSWIN    NICKEL.  9 

Nicole,  Arnauld,  Sncy,  and  other  SoUfaires,  published 
theological  pamphlets  for  circulation  in  the  salons  and 
boudoirs,  but  persecution  came  not.  The  Fathers  appeared 
satisfied  with  the  decision  of  the  Holy  See.  This  did  not 
content  the  ardor  of  the  Solitaires  of  Port  Royal.  The 
celebrated  Arnauld  then  issued  another  pamphlet,  which 
had  the  so  much  desired  effect.  The  Society  of  the  Sor- 
bonne  pronounced  it  "  impious,  scandalous,  and  heretical." 

This  declaration  bore  date  January  29,  1656.  There 
was  no  means  whereby  to  accuse  the  Jesuits  of  having 
been  the  cause  of  the  decision.  The  University  was  too 
pointedly  opposed  to  them.  The  power  of  truth  alone 
had  brought  it  about.  Arnauld  attempted  to  defend  him- 
self in  a  publication  which  his  friends  considered  too 
feeble  to  be  put  forth.  Among  those  who  heard  it  read, 
was  Blaise  Pascal.  Arnauld,  noticing  his  disparaging 
looks,  said  to  his  friend  : 

"  You  do  not  approve  of  my  work,  and  I  admit  that  it 
is  worthless;  but  you,  who  are  younger,  ought  to  produce 
something  good."  And  Blaise  Pascal  wrote  his  first  Let- 
tre  Provinciale,  a  libel  as  ingenious  as  it  was  false.  Its 
success  was  immense,  for  it  was  brilliant  with  wit,  and  he 
who  amuses,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  truth  and  charity, 
will  ever  be  applauded,  though  few  should  really  approve 
him.  VoUairo  himself,  in  the  time  of  Louis  XIV,  says, 
in  speaking  of  the  Proviiiciales:  "They  essayed,  in  those 
letters,  to  prove  that  the  Jesuits  had  an  express  intention  of 
corrupting  the  morals  of  men,  a  design  which  no  sect  or 
society  ever  had  or  could  have.  But  it  was  not  a  question  of 
consistency,  but  of  the  amusement  of  the  public."  And,  in 
writing  to  Father  de  la  Tour,  he  said :  "  Honestly  speaking, 
are  we  to  judge  of  the  morals  of  the  Jesuits  by  the  satire  of 
the  Lettres  Provinciales  ?" 

These  letters  were  successively  issued,  without  the  Jes- 
uits taking  the  least  pains  to  refute  them.  It  was  they 
38* 


10  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JE3US. 

who  wore  attacked;  it  was  their  morality  which  was 
charged  with  being  culpably  loose;  it  was  a  falsification 
of  their  books,  which  they  gave  as  food  to  active  minds ; 
it  was  a  tissue  of  calumnies  with  which  they  charged 
them,  written  in  an  amusing  and  ironical  style.  They 
had  the  humility  to  treat  it  with  silent  contempt — to  let 
their  enemies  write,  and  speak,  and  laugh — were  they 
right? 

The  bishops  were  concerned  at  this  overflow  of  iniquity, 
which  weighed  upon  the  holy  Society  of  Jesus,  amidst 
shouts  of  derision  from  the  thoughtless.  They  denounced 
the  Proviiiciales,  and  the  Parliament  of  Aix  condemned  the 
work,  and  ordered  that  it  should  be  publicly  burned.  The 
Pope,  in  like  manner,  condemned  it  on  the  14th  of  March, 
1658;  and  the  King's  Council  issued  a  decree,  under 
which  it  was  burned,  in  the  Place  de  Greve,  on  the  14th 
of  October,  1660.  The  General  Assembly  of  the  clergy 
of  France  adopted  a  formula,  arranged  by  Peter  de  Marca, 
which  was  destined  to  be  submitted  to  all  the  Jansenists 
for  signature.  This  was  entitled  Fonnulaire.  Henry 
Arnauld,  Bishop  of  Angers;  Pavilion,  Bishop  of  Aleth ; 
Buzenval,  Bishop  of  Beauvais;  Caulet,  Bishop  of  Pamiers, 
joined  tiie  recusants,  and  refused  to  subscribe  to  the  For- 
mulaire.  The  King  established  a  Court  of  Conscience, 
which  was  charged  to  examine  subjects  brought  forward 
for  the  bishoprics  and  grand  benefices.  It  was  composed 
of  Peter  de  Marca,  Archbishop  of  Toulouse;  Hardouen 
de  Perefixe,  Bishop  of  Rodez,  and  Father  Annat,  the 
King's  Confessor,  and  one  of  the  most  renowned  members 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  monarch  wished,  as  a  guar- 
antee for  the  future,  to  exclude  the  Jansenists  from  all 
ecclesiastical  dignities.  He,  at  the  same  time,  commanded 
that  the  schools  of  Port  Royal  should  be  closed. 

The  Superintendent,  Fcuquet,  kept  up  a  correspondence 
with  the  chief   of   the  sect,  Arnauld  d'Andilly;  but,  in 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  GOSWIN   NICKEL.  11 

order  to  escape  the  King's  displeasure,  he  carried  on  tliis 
correspondence  in  secret,  and,  lor  this  purpose,  made  use 
of  Simon  de  Pompone,  son  of  d'Andilly.  Louis  XIV 
having  been  informed  of  this  secret  correspondence,  Fou- 
quet  was  arrested  at  Nantes,  by  order  of  the  King,  on  the 
5th  of  September,  1G61.  Arnauld  d'Andilly  had  also  en- 
deavored to  entangle  Marshal  Fabert;  but  the  brave  offi- 
cer, who  was,  at  first,  tempted  by  the  seductive  represent- 
ations of  the  leader  of  the  Jansenists,  soon  saw  through 
the  snare  which  was  laid  to  entrap  him,  and  took  the 
most  certain  means  of  avoiding  it.  lie  was  Governor  of 
Sedan,  a  city  in  which  Protestantism  was  in  the  ascendant. 
He  saw  that  Father  John  Adam,  a  Jesuit,  had  earned  for 
himself  the  high  esteem  of  the  people,  even  of  the  here- 
tics, a  great  veneration  for  his  virtues,  and  a  kind  appre- 
ciation of  his  toleration.  He  addressed  him,  conjuring 
him  to  return,  assuring  him  that  he  could  there  labor 
most  beneficially  for  the  glory  of  God. 

Shortly  after  this,  the  Marshal  entreated  Father  Adam 
to  obtain  from  the  King,  for  the  inhabitants  of  Sedan, 
that  religious  liberty  which  they  had  not  the  courage  to 
ask  for  themselves.  The  Jesuit  lost  no  time  in  laying  the 
petition  before  the  King,  by  whom  it  was  favorably  re- 
ceived. The  Calvinists  manifested  the  most  lively  grati- 
tude for  the  service  thus  rendered.  On  the  18th  of  July, 
Marshal  Fabert  thus  writes : 

"  The  Jesuits  always  avenge  themselves  oy  doing  good  to  those 
who  wish  them  most  evil.  Under  any  other  circumstances,  they 
might  not,  perliaps,  have  rendered  such  a  service  to  the  Calvinists. 
But  for  those  of  Sedan,  the  gentle  toleration  cf  the  holy  missionary 
might  prepare  the  way  for  him,  the  more  surely  to  draw  them  to 
the  true  faith;  and  such  was  the  result.'' 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Jesuits  had  returned  to  Venice, 
from  which  city  they  had  been  expelled,  in  1606,  for  the 


12  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS-. 

alleged  crime  of  submission  to  the  Holy  See.  Pope 
Alexander  YII  had  called  upon  the  republic  to  reinstate 
them.  The  Senate,  who  deplored  the  error  of  the  pre- 
ceding generation,  lost  no  time  in  acceding  to  this  desire. 
The  Sovereign  Pontiff  expressed  his  satisfaction  to  the 
republic  by  a  brief,  dated  the  27th  of  January,  1657; 
and  the  Father-General,  announcing  this  event  to  all  the 
Provincials  of  the  society,  said :  "  This  restoration  is 
accorded  us  without  any  vexatious  conditions,  with  the 
restitution  of  all  the  possessions  which  we  formerly  held  " 

The  Jansenists  were  well  aware  of  the  conditions  on 
which  the  Jesuits  returned  to  the  Venetian  States.  This 
did  not  prevent  Antoine  Arnauld  writing,  in  his  Memoires^ 
that  the  Jesuits  had  "  profited,  by  the  pressing  necessities 
of  the  republic,  to  secure  their  reinstatement  in  Venice, 
upon  condition  of  being  paid  a  considerable  sum  of 
money."  Arnauld,  no  doubt,  imagined  that  posterity 
"would  look  upon  the  republic  as  caring  but  little  for  its 
own  safety,  when  it  secured  the  return,  by  means  of 
money,  of  a  religious  body  which  was  so  formidable  and 
so  dangerous.  Thus  it  is  that  party  spirit  is  so  lavish 
of  the  truth,  and  trifles  with  the  credulity  of  posterity. 

In  the  same  year,  the  Cossacks  surprised  a  holy  Polish 
Jesuit,  in  the  town  of  Pinsk,  and  conferred  on  him  the 
palm  of  martyrdom,  on  the  16th  of  May,  1657.  Father 
Andrew  Bobola,  whose  untiring  zeal  had  rendered  him 
obnoxious  to  the  schismatics,  had  just  offered  up  the  holy 
sacrifice,  when  a  horde  of  Cossacks  attacked  the  town.  On 
beholding  the  barbarians,  Father  Bobola  fell  upon  his 
knees,  raised  his  eyes  and  his  hands  toward  heaven,  and, 
having  a  presentiment  that  his  hour  had  arrived,  ex- 
exclaimed,  "  Lord,  thy  will  be  done  !"  At  that  moment, 
the  Cossacks  rushed  upon  him,  stripped  him  of  his  holy 
habit,  tied  him  to  a  tree,  placed  a  crown  upon  his  head, 
as  did  the  Jews  upon  the  head  of  our  adorable  Saviour, 


GENERALSHIP  OP   FATHER  GOSWIN    NICKEL.  Jo 

after  vrhicli  tliey  scourged  liini,  tore  out  one  of  his  eyes. 
burned  his  body  with  torclies,  and  one  of  the  ruffians 
traced,  with  his  poignard,  the  form  of  a  tonsure  on  the 
head  ot  the  venerable  Father,  and  on  his  back  the  fig- 
ure of  a  chasuble  !  To  do  thi's,  the  executioner  had  to 
strip  off  the  skin  of  the  holy  martyr  !  But  this  was  not 
yet  all.  The  fingers  of  the  apostle  had  received  the 
priestly  unction.  The  executioner  tore  from  them  the 
skin,  and  forced  needles  under  his  nails!  And  during  this 
indescribable  torture,  the  hero  prayed  for  his  tormentors; 
he  preached,  both  by  word  and  example,  until  the  schis- 
matics tore  out  his  tongue  and  crushed  his  head  !  Father 
xVndrew  Bobola,  whom  the  Church  declared  Blessed,  the 
30th  of  October,  1853,  was  sixty-five  years  of  age. 

III. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1655,  a  Jesuit  arrived  at  Rome. 
A  few  days  after,  he  prostrated  himself  at  the  feet  of  Alex- 
ander VII,  who  treated  him  with  the  most  fatherly  affec- 
tion, and  received  from  him  a  sort  of  veil,  or  long  scarf, 
of  yellow  silk,  trimmed  Avith  gold  fringe,  inscribed  with 
Chinese  characters,  and  bearing  the  imperial  colors  of  the 
sovereigns  of  the  Celestial  Empire.  This  was  the  letter 
which  the  Empress  Helen  had  addressed  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  and  the  Jesuit  who  presented  it  was  no  other 
than  Father  Boym,  who,  as  already  related,  had  been  se- 
lected by  Helen  for  that  important  mission,  with  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  P]mperor  Jun-Lie.  A  similar  letter,  addressed 
to  the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  is  conserved  among 
the  archives  in  the  parent  house  at  Rome. 

Scarcely  had  Father  Boym  quitted  China,  than  the 
Emperor  Jun-Lie  was  attacked  by  the  Tartar  Chun-Tchi, 
his  rival,  and  Emperor  of  the  North.  Jun-Lie  was  de- 
feated and  killed,  as  was  also  his  son.  Helen  was  made 
prisoner  and  taken  to  Pekin. 


14  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Almighty  God  granted  her  the  consolation  of  finding,  in 
her  captivity,  all  that  spiritual  consolation  of  which  she 
stood  so  much  in  need.  Father  Adam  Schall  was  there, 
loved,  esteemed,  and  followed  by  the  reigning  family,  and 
equally  devoted  to  the  salvation  of  the  victors  as  to  that 
of  the  vanquished. 

As  soon  as  Chun-Tchi  found  himself  sole  ruler  of  the 
empire,  he  commanded  all  his  generals,  who  were  dispersed 
throughout  the  provinces,  to  respect  the  Doctors  of  the 
Divine  Law,  who  had  come  from  the  great  West.  He 
forced  upon  Father  Schall  the  dignity  of  Mandarin.  He 
appointed  him  President  of  the  Mathematicians  of  the 
empire,  and  gave  him  the  official  title  of  J/o/a,  which 
signifies  Father.  He  had,  at  all  times,  free  access  to  the 
palace,  and  the  Emperor  frequently  went  to  the  dwelling 
of  the  holy  missionary,  passing  several  hours  at  a  time 
with  him,  a  thing  till  then  unheard  of  in  the  Celestial 
Empire,  where  the  sovereign  was  inaccessible,  and,  so  to 
speak,  invisible  to  his  subjects.  But,  notwithstanding  the 
zeal  and  pressing  solicitations  of  the  Jesuit,  the  Emperor 
could  never  be  induced  to  sacrifice  those  passions  which 
were  the  obstacles  to  his  conversion,  and  he  died  in  his  in- 
fidelity, in  1661,  leaving  the  crown  to  a  child  eight  years 
old. 

America  presented  a  vast  field  for  the  zeal  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  There  were  still  new  peoples  to  discover,  fresh 
dangers  to  brave,  new  difficulties  to  surmount,  and  fre- 
quently martyrdom  to  be  gained,  as  the  recompense  of  so 
many  hardships  and  such  unexampled  charity.  But  we 
know  that  martyrdom  was  the  reward  to  which  the  valiant 
soldiers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  chiefly  aspired,  the  end 
most  ardently  desired  by  those  noble  and  self-sacrificing 
heroes. 

In  1G56,  there  were  in  Paraguay  mcfre  than  twenty  towns 
wholly   civilized,  each   of  which   contained    from   ten   to 


GENERA  T.SHIP    OF    FATHER   GOSWIN    NJCKEL.  15 

twclv-.)  hundred  families,  each  family  compnsing  ist  least 
from  five  to  six  persons,  which  gave  to  each  town,  or  Eo- 
duction,  a  population  of  from  live  to  six  thousand  souls. 
Other  Ueductions  were  partially  civilized,  and  others,  again, 
were  so  firmly  established  that  the  Jesuits,  being  insuf- 
ficient to  meet  the  v/ants  of  the  people,  confided  them  to 
priests  whom  they  selected  for  that  duty,  in  order  that 
they  might  go  in  search  of  those  who  were  still  encamped 
in  the  forests,  or  on  the  bai.ks  of  the  rivers. 

Thus,  up  to  that  period,  U>5(J,  they  had  converted  and 
civilized  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  savages; 
they  had  transformed  them  into  settled  and  industrious 
peoples,  who  lived  together  in  brotherly  union,  and  in  all 
the  simplicity  and  purity  of  primitive  Christianity.  They 
had  efl'ected  this  wonderful  change  by  the  gentleness  of 
their  teachings,  their  unwearied  devotion,  their  incompar- 
able self-sacrifice,  a  zeal  as  tireless  as  their  charity,  and  by 
the  exercise  of  those  admiuistra'^ive  powers  which  they 
have  always  possessed  in  such  an  eminent  degree.  We 
may  also  here  remark,  that  so  many  virtues  calling  down 
blessings  from  on  high,  Divine  Grnce  worked  upon  the 
hearts  of  those  peoples,  and  enforced  the  teachings  oi'  the 
missionaries. 

About  this  time,  Father  Vieira  entered  upon  the  most 
gigantic  undertaking.  He  sought  to  convert  and  civilize 
all  the  tribes  that  inhabited  the  borders  and  islands  of  the 
river  Amazon,  which,  according  to  Malte-Brun,  is  more 
than  six  hundred  leagues  long  and,  in  the  narrowest  part, 
over  a  league  wide,  gradually  increasing  until  it  exceeds 
sixty-five  leagues  from  bank  to  bank. 

Father  A^ieira  divided  the  mission  into  four  residences, 
which  were  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  Six  Jes- 
uits stationed  themselves,  as  best  they  could,  at  each  one 
of  these  posts,  and  thence  proceeded  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  the  Indians,  who  were  the  terror  of  the  surrounding 


16  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

countries.  The  Europeans  had  never  been  able  to  ap- 
proach them.  Never  had  the  Portuguese  arras  been  able 
to  subdue  a  single  one  of  those  tribes  whose  poisoned 
arrows  carried  death  into  the  ranks  of  their  enemy.  Several 
of  them,  called  Nheengaibas,  were  more  open  to  negotia- 
tion with  the  Dutch,  whom  they  did  not  regard  as  wishing 
to  subjugate  them.  But  from  the  Portuguese  the}^  dreaded 
slavery,  and  hence  declared  against  them  eternal  war.  The 
Governor  of  the  province,  Don  Pedro  de  Melho,  fearing 
that  a  treaty  would  be  entered  into  between  these  tribes 
and  the  Dutch,  determined  to  oppose  them  with  such  an 
amount  of  artillery  as  should  subdue  them;  for  war  had 
raged  incessantly  for  twenty  years,  and  che  commissioners 
who  had  been  sent  to  propose  conditions  of  peace,  had 
been  put  to  death. 

Father  Vieira  was  aware  of  this;  but  he  requested  to  be 
permitted  to  go  in  person,  in  the  name  of  the  sovereign, 
to  proclaim  peace  and  freedom  to  all  those  of  the  Nheen- 
gaibas who  would  listen  to  the  word  of  God  and  submit 
to  His  law. 

The  missionary  gave  the  Indians  to  understand  that  he 
desired  to  visit  them,  and  endeavor  to  procure  for  them 
peace,  while  securing  to  them  their  liberty.  The  Nheen- 
gaibas knew  the  good  Father  by  reputation.  They  were 
aware  that  the  Jesuits  were  the  only  really  true  friends  of 
the  Indians,  and  that  they  had  ever  been  faithful  to  their 
promises.  Seven  of  the  savages  hastened  to  the  college 
of  the  Jesuits,  to  serve  as  hostages  during  the  visit  of 
Father  Vieira,  while  others  went  to  meet  the  missionary; 
and  on  the  15th  of  August,  1658,  they  embarked  together 
on  the  great  river,  escorted  by  many  boats  filled  with  the 
natives  of  the  neighboring  tribes,  who  had  been  summoned 
to  take  part  in  their  rejoicings. 

On  reaching  his  destination,  the  good  Father  was  received 
with  enthusiastic  joy  by  the  Indians,  who  awaited  him  on 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  GOSWIN  NICKEL.  17 

the  river  bank.  These  were  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  of 
JSiheengaibas,  and  those  of  several  other  peoples,  who  had 
come  to  welcome  the  missionary  of  peace.  The  Father 
was  conducted  in  triumph  to  a  church,  which  the  savages 
had  privately  erected  for  the  worship  of  that  God  in 
whose  name  their  freedom  had  been  promised.  This  was 
intended  as  a  surprise  for  the  good  Father ;  nor  was  it  th( 
only  one.  On  leaving  the  church,  there  was  a  house  as- 
signed as  his  residence,  erected  for  that  especial  purpose, 
and  which,  as  well  as  the  sacred  edifice,  was  declared 
his  property;  for  henceforth  the  apostle  was  their  great 
Father. 

Father  Vieira  won  the  affection  of  his  entertainers,  and 
induced  them  to  accept  peace  on  the  conditions  he  pro- 
posed. He  then  consecrated  the  recollection  of  this  treaty 
by  a  solemn  mass  of  thanksgiving,  at  which  he  invited 
the  Europeans  and  Indians  to  assist.  After  mass,  the 
Jesuit,  from  the  altar-stef>s,  reminded  the  parties  con- 
cerned of  their  mutual  engagements  in  this  great  recon- 
ciliation, and,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  discourse,  the  royal 
officers  successively  swore  to  him  fidelity  to  their  promises. 
The  chiefs  of  each  tribe  then  presented  themselves,  cast 
at  the  feet  of  the  Father  their  poisoned  arrows,  took  his 
hands,  and  holding  them  up  toward  heaven,  pronounced  this 
formal  oath : 

"  I,  chief  of  my  nation,  in  my  own  name,  and  in  the  name 
of  all  ray  subjects  and  descendants,  promise  to  Almighty 
God,  and  to  the  King  of  Portugal,  that  I  will  embrace  the 
faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord,  to  be,  as  I  am  from  this  day, 
the  subject  of  His  Majesty;  to  live  in  perpetual  peace  with 
the  Portuguese,  being  the  friend  of  their  friends,  and  the 
enemy  of  their  enemies." 

Upward  of  a  hundred  thousand  Indians  had  just  sub- 
scribed,   through   their   chiefs,    to   the   treaty   prepared   and 

negotiated    by    Father   Vieira.      All    gladly    accepted    the 
39 


18  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Jesuits  for  missionaries;  all  snbmissiyely  acknowledged 
the  dominion  of  the  King  of  Portugal.  Here  was  a  pop- 
ulation of  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  souls,  which  a 
single  Jesuit  had  given  to  the  Church  and  to  Portugal. 

The  Portuguese  merchants  avenged  themselves  of  what 
they  were  pleased  to  call  their  ruin.  Being  unable  to 
carry  oif  the  Indians  who  had  submitted,  they  sought  their 
annoyance  and  final  destruction  by  incendiarism,  and  by 
such  means,  to  reduce  them  again  to  slavery;  but  the  cat- 
echumens remained  faithful  to  their  oath.  Father  Vieira 
complained  to  the  King,  who  issued  a  stringent  edict;  but, 
instead  of  allaying,  he  only  aggravated  the  evil.  The 
exasperated  Portuguese  seized  all  the  Jesuits  who  were 
distributed  among  the  allied  tribes,  and,  in  May,  1661, 
put  them  on  board  vessels  bound  for  Lisbon.  By  this 
means  they  hoped  to  rid  themselves  forever  of  the  cen- 
sors of  their  culpable  avarice.  Such  was  the  worldly  re 
ward  accorded  to  Father  Vieira  and  his  companions! 
They  scrupled  not  publicly  to  accuse  the  Jesuits  of  seek- 
ing sovereign  power  over  the  people  whom  their  gentle 
teachings  had  subdued,  whom  their  zeal  had  Christianized, 
and  whom  their  sincere  and  inexhaustible  charity  had  civ- 
ilized, The  calumniators  ought  to  have  borne  in  mind  a 
recent  circumstance  which  proved  a  fiat  contradiction  to 
this. 

A  few  months  refore,  the  Spaniards  of  Assumption  were 
surprised  by  the  revolted  Indians  whom  they  held  in 
irlavery.  The  vengeance  of  these  unfortunate  natives  was 
carried  to  the  most  savage  excess.  They  rpurdered  the 
principal  inhabitants  of  the  city,  and  compelled  the  Gov- 
ernor, Don  Alonzo  Sarmiento,  to  flee  to  the  country.  The 
Jesuits,  having  heard  of  this  outbreak,  ordered  the  neo- 
phytes of  their  Ileductions  to  arm  themselves,  conducted 
them  to  the  assistance  of  the  Spanish,  and  recaptured  the 
city,  reestablishing  order  wherever  it  had  been  interrupted. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  GOSWIN   NICKEL.  19 

The  neophytes  marched  to  the  assistance  of  the  Spanish, 
the  enemies  to  their  freedom,  because  the  Jesuits  had 
taught  them  their  duty  to  the  King  of  Spain,  as  their  sov- 
ereign, and  to  the  Spanish,  as  subjects  of  the  same  prince. 
But  passion  is  not  guided  by  reflection ;  it  prefers  cal- 
umny. 

The  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  aged  and  fee- 
ble. He  became  alarmed  at  the  responsibility  of  a  charge, 
the  duties  of  which  he  no  longer  possessed  the  necessary 
strength  to  discharge,  and  he  implored  his  brethren  to 
grant  him  a  Vicar-General,  with  the  right  of  succession. 
The  professed  members  applied  to  the  Sovereign  Poniiff 
for  the  power  to  accede  to  the  desire  of  their  Superior. 
Pope  Alexander  VII  having,  by  a  brief,  accorded  it,  the 
Congregation  elected  Father  John  Paul  Oliva  perpetual 
Vicar-General,  with  future  succession  and  power  to  govern. 
He  belonged  to  one  of  the  ducal  families  of  Genoa,  the 
grandson  and  nephew  of  the  last  Doges.  This  election 
took  place  on  the  7th  of  June,  16G1. 

From  this  time  the  General  resio;ned  into  his  hands  the 
reins  of  government.  It  was  on  that  day,  therefore,  that 
really  commenced  the  Generalship  of  Father  Oliva,  who 
was  as  distinguished  for  his  virtues  as  for  his  talents. 
Father  Nickel  survived  this  election  but  three  years 


20  HISTORY   or   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 


(generalsljij  d  |atkr  |aul  ©libs, 

ELEVENTH    GENERAL. 
1661-1G81. 

I. 

Jansenism  secretly  spread  itself  tliroughout  Europe. 
Like  Protestantism,  it  had  its  end  to  attain.  The  power 
of  the  Pope  was  an  obstacle  to  it.  It  was,  therefore, 
necessary  to  imbue  the  Catholic  mind  with  ideas  of  in- 
dependence. It  was  necessary  to  lead  them  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject  of  the  Pope's  authority,  thus, 
subsequently,  to  induce  them  to  cede  to  him  only  a  con- 
ditional and  limited  submission,  of  which  each  one 
should  be  free  to  define  the  extent,  accordins;  to  his  own 
convenience  or  particular  views.  Paris  continued  the 
head-quarters  of  this  new  sect. 

Cardinal  de  Retz  had  been,  by  his  own  fault,  deprived 
of  his  See,  and  was  still  in  exile.  Hardouin  de  Perefixe 
was  his  successor,  and  desired  to  restore  peace  and  union 
in  that  diocese  which  had  for  so  many  years  been  dis- 
turbed. To  this  end,  it  was  necessary  to  lead  back  to 
submission  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal,  whose  spirit  of  pros- 
elytism  was  a  bar  to  any  conciliatory  measures.  The 
Archbishop  requested  Bossuct  to  assume  the  duty  of 
enliii-htenino;  and  convincing;;  them.  But  this  was  not  so 
easily  accomplished.  The  nuns  were  wanting  in  one  vir- 
tue— the  very  one  which,  always  necessary,  was  absolutely 
indispensable  in  the  present  case  :  humility  was  unknown 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  PAUL  OLIVA.  21 

at  Port  Hoyal.  Jansenism  abhors  that  virtue,  which  it 
resjards  as  weak-mindedness,  and  which  it  disdainfully 
ridicules,  as  if  the  Gospel  did  not  teach  it,  or  as  though 
the  Sacred  Scripture  were  only  the  word  of  man.  Bossuet 
failed  in  his  undertakin<j;.  The  nuns  argued  from  their 
Augustinus  like  so  many  divines,  giving  very  convincing 
proofs  of  the  high  opinion  they  entertained  of  their  own 
knowledge — so  much  so,  indeed,  that  the  eminent  theo- 
logian, perceiving  that  they  considered  themselves  more 
learned  than  himself,  was  compelled  to  relinquish  all 
hopes  of  overcoming  their  pride.  The  Archbishop  of 
Paris  w^as  not  more  successful.  On  leaving  tliera,  after  a 
last  conference,  as  fruitless  as  those  that  preceded  it,  he 
said  to  them  :  "  You  are  as  pure  as  angels,  and  as  proud 
as  demons." 

The  conciliatory  charity  of  Father  Annat,  the  King's 
Confessor,  sought  an  opportunity  to  put  an  end  to  the  re- 
ligious agitation  which  divided  the  public  mind,  and,  at 
his  request,  the  King,  in  the  month  of  August,  1662, 
commanded  Gilbert  Choiseul,  Bishop  of  Comminges,  and 
a  friend  of  the  Jansenists  to  cooperate  with  Fathers  An- 
nat and  Ferrier  for  this  purpose.  Conferences  were  held, 
and  the  leaders  of  the  Jansenist  party  accepted  the  con- 
ciliatory propositions  of  the  Fathers.  Doctor  Arnauld 
alone  refused  to  yield.  "  You  will  be  condemned  before 
God  and  man,"  wrote  Le  Nain,  "if  you  do  not  believe  a 
prelate  as  enlightened,  as  virtuous,  and  as  free  from  sus- 
picion as  M.  de  Comminges."  Arnauld  was  inexorable. 
His  brothers  united  with  his  friends,  but  he  was  not  to  be 
moved,  and  sustained  himself  so  well  as  to  succeed  in 
breaking  oif  the  negotiations.  He  would  not  accept  the 
reconciliation  proposed  by  the  Jesuits.  This  was  the  only 
ground  of  his  opposition.  The  result  was,  that  on  the 
24th   of   August,   1664,   his    nieces,   nuns   of    Port    Boyal, 

whom  he   had   so  incited  to  revolt,  were  borne  away  from 
39* 


22  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

their  convent  by  an  armed  force,  and  placed  in   the  vari- 
ous convents  in  Paris. 

Alexander  VII,  by  a  Bull  of  February  15,  1665,  en- 
tirely approved  this  measure,  which  had  become  indis- 
pensably necessary. 

While  these  events  engaged  public  attention,  the  Jes- 
uits, ever  seeking  the  glory  of  God,  and  laboring  to  pro- 
mote it  with  all  the  ardor  of  their  zeal,  reclaimed  several 
families  to  the  faith  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Countess 
of  Sussex,  her  son,  and  his  family  renounced  Anglicanism 
at  the  colleo-e  of  La  Fleche.  The  Count  de  La  Suze 
and  the  Marquis  de  Beauvais  abjured  Calvinism  at  the 
parent  house  in  Paris ;  Louis  de  Croy  at  Usez ;  the 
Countess  de  Montpinyon  at  Alenyon  ;  all  the  La  Claye 
family  at  Meaux.  At  the  same  time.  Count  Dunois  en- 
tered the  novitiate  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  In  1661, 
Father  Vincent  Huby  founded,  in  Brittany,  the  first 
houses  of  retreat,  of  which  the  numbers  so  prodigiously 
increased,  not  only  in  France,  but  throughout  Europe 
generally,  and  in  South  America. 

In  England,  the  Jesuits  converted  James,  Duke  of 
York,  brother  of  Charles  II;  and,  after  a  brief  calra, 
during  which  they  had  done  so  much  good,  they  found 
themselves  again  the  victims  of  the  hatred  of  heresy.  In 
1665,  the  city  of  London  was  desolated  by  the  plague. 
The  Jesuits  were  accused  of  poisoning  the  fountains. 
The  Fathers  had  no  other  water  to  drink  but  that  in 
general  use.  But  calumny  does  not  pique  itself  on  con- 
sistency. Have  we  not  seen  the  same  absurdities  intro- 
duced at  Paris,  in  1832?  Who  does  not  remember  the 
credulity  of  the  people  on  that  point?  The  cholera  was 
the  work  of  the  Jesuits ;  nothing  was  more  certain. 
They  had  caused  all  the  fountains  and  wells  to  be  poi- 
soned ;  aye,  even  the  river  Seine  and  the  Ourcq  Canal ! 
Thus,  an   absurd   calumny,  invented   by   the  Anglicans,  in 


GENERALSIIir  OF  FATHER  PAUL  OLIVA.  23 

7G65,  was  reproduced  amidst  the  most  irifjjenious  people 
in  the  world,  and  was  received  with  the  greatest  credulity 
in  this  age  of*  enligliten merit  and  progress  ! 

In  1G65,  a  dreadful  fire  completely  destroyed  a  great 
part  of  London.  This,  again,  was  the  work  of  the  Jesuits. 
The  Anglicans,  in  all  seriousness,  ajBirmed  it,  adding  that 
the  Jesuits  simply  desired  to  burn  all  the  heretics,  in 
order  to  destroy  Protestantism  forever  in  England.  The 
fable  was  not  very  ingenious,  since  the  heretics  were  not 
all  in  London.  They  were  numerous  enough  in  the 
provinces  to  render  so  abominable  a  crime  useless  in  this 
sense.  It  was  an  absurd  story,  like  that  of  the  preceding 
year,  and,  therefore,  there  were  credulous  minds  who 
seized  upon  it.  But,  what  appears  still  more  incredible 
is,  that  the  House  of  Commons  ordered  an  investigation 
into  the  matter  !  It  was  proved  that  not  a  single  Jesuit 
had,  in  any  way,  any  thing  to  do  with  the  fire  of  London. 
But  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  no  less  the  enemy  of  the 
Reformers,  and  that  which  it  had  not  done  on  this  occa- 
sion it  might  accomplish  later  ;  hence,  it  was  necessary 
again  to  banish  the  Jesuits,  and  expel  them  forever  from 
the  British  states.  The  Anglicans  had  promised  them- 
selves the  attainment  of  this  much -desired  end. 

The  Jesuits  enjoyed  tranquillity  in  Poland,  where  John 
Casimir  still  reigned  ;  in  Germany,  whose  sovereign  was 
their  pupil  and  their  friend ;  in  Italy,  whose  princes  sought 
them,  s.nd  augmented  the  number  of  their  colleges  and 
louses;  but  in  the  foreign  missions  persecution  was  ever 
an  attendant  on  success,  and  martyrdom  on  triumph. 

The  Emperor  of  China,  prior  to  his  death,  gave  orders 
that  Father  Adam  Schali  should  take  charge  of  the  educa- 
tion of  his  son,  and  the  Regents  respected  the  order.  Soon, 
the  Bonzes,  who  had,  for  some  time,  been  seeking  an  oppor- 
tunity to  declare  war  against  Christianity,  persuaded  the 
principal  ministers  of  the  Regency  that,  if  the  Jesuit  con- 


24  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tiuued  to  educate  the  young  Emperor,  they  would  enjoy 
still  greater  favor  than  under  the  Emperor  Cham-Tchi,  and 
that  the  European  Bonzes  would  become  all-powerful  in 
the  Celestial  Empire,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  the  Chinese 
nobles. 

The  Jesuits  were  numerous,  at  this  time,  in  China, 
and  possessed  a  hundred  and  fifty-one  churches  and  thirty- 
eight  residences.  They  had  written  one  hundred  and 
thirty  books  on  religion,  one  hundred  and  three  on  mathe- 
matics, and  a  hundred  and  five  on  natural  philosophy  and 
morals,  all  in  the  Chinese  language.  The  Dominicans  had 
twenty-one  churches  and  two  houses ;  the  Franciscans, 
three  churches  and  one  house. 

The  Pat^ans  called  the  missionaries  to  Pekin,  and  con- 
demned  them  to  perpetual  imprisonment;  but  only  twenty- 
three  obeyed  the  summons — nineteen  Jesuits,  three  Do- 
minicans, and  one  Franciscan — all  of  whom  they  sent  to  the 
prisons  of  Canton.  Father  Schall,  who  was,  at  first,  con- 
demned to  be  cut  to  pieces,  was  set  at  liberty,  at  the  ko- 
licitation  of  the  people,  who  had  ever  been  the  recipients 
of  his  goodness.  The  venerable  apostle  did  not  long  sur- 
vive this  favor,  which  was  due  to  the  gratitude  of  the 
people.  He  died  on  the  15th  of  August,  1666,  aged  seven- 
ty-nine years,  forty-four  of  which  he  had  spent  in  the  Chi- 
nese mission.  Fathers  James  llho  and  Prosper  Intorcetta 
gave  him  the  last  consolations,  and  received  his  last  sigh. 

The  next  year.  Father  Navarette,  a  Dominican,  succeeded 
in  making  his  escape  from  prison.  Father  Grimaldi,  a 
Jesuit,  who  had  not  been  imprisoned,  heard  of  the  escape, 
and,  foreseeing  its  consequences,  hesitated  not  to  take  the 
place  of  the  fugitive,  so  that  his  flight  should  remain  un- 
known. 

In  America,  on  the  river  Amazon,  the  Nheengaibas,  de 
prived  of  their  missionaries,  again  had  recourse  to  their 
arrows  against  the  Europeans,  who  were  the  first  to  break 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATUER  PAUL  OLIVA.  25 

the  treaty;  but,  in  1G64,  Father  Vieira  and  his  brethren 
were  restored  to  them  by  order  of  the  King,  and  the  good 
Indians  welcomed  him  with  tears  of  joy.  The  Jesuits  were 
thus  enabled  to  continue  the  work  already  commenced. 
The  Fathers  of  the  diocese  of  the  Assumption  now  saw  the 
termination  of  the  persecution  which  their  charity  for  the 
natives  had  occasioned.  Philip  IV  had  asked  the  Pope  to 
transfer  Don  Bernardino  de  Cardenas  to  the  See  of  Santa 
Cruz  de  la  Sierra,  and  Alexander  VII  acceded  to  the  re- 
quest, and,  on  the  15tli  of  December,  1666,  he  appointed 
Father  Gabriel  Guillestiguy,  a  Franciscan,  Bishop  of  As- 
sumption. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff,  shortly  after,  departed  this  life, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Cardinal  Rospigliosi,  under  the  name 
of  Clement  IX.  A  few  months  prior,  on  the  9th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1667,  the  society  lost  Father  Edmund  de  Joyeuse, 
at  the  College  of  Metz,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  professors,  much  loved  and  sought  for  on 
account  of  his  rare  qualities  as  a  preacher.  In  the  same 
year,  the  institute  had  likewise  to  mourn  the  loss  of  one 
of  its  most  celebrated  members,  who  had  become  one  of 
its  supports.  Cardinal  Sforza  Pallavicini,  whom  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff  had  forced  to  accept  the  Cardinal's  hat,  was 
one  of  the  bright  gems  of  the  Order.  He  had  distinguished 
himself  by  his  philosophical  researches,  and  by  the  pro- 
duction of  a  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  as,  also,  by 
his  eminent  virtues.  He  died,  in  the  flower  of  life,  on  the 
5th  of  June,  1667. 

II. 

Scarcely  had  Clement  IX  ascended  the  Pontifical 
throne  when  the  Jansenists,  in  spite  of  the  determined  op- 
position of  their  leader,  Antoine  Arnauld,  sought  to  treat 
with  the  Holy  See.  They  felt  the  necessity  of  their  being 
accepted,  in  order  the  more  efficiently  to  labor  in  the  work 


26  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  destruction  upon  wliicli  they  had  entered.  The  Pope 
confided  this  negotiation  to  the  Nuncio  Bargellini.  No 
sooner  had  the  latter  arrived  at  Paris,  than  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  dissenters  and  their  friends.  At  the  head 
of  these  was  the  Princess  de  Conti  and  the  Duchess  de 
Longueville.  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  neglected  any 
means  by  which  they  might  win  over  the  Roman  prelate 
to  their  cause,  which  caused  Fontaine,  an  ardent  Jansenist, 
to  say,  in  his  Memoirs,  that  the}'^  "were  the  enlighteners 
of  bishops,  and  led  them,  so  to  speak,  by  the  hand."  Fon- 
taine must  have  smiled  while  writing  those  lines,  which 
one  would  be  tempted  to  take  for  an  epigram,  so  much 
ridicule  did  they  cast  upon  the  actors. 

After  several  conferences,  held  in  presence  of  these 
ladies,  Dr.  Arnauld  consented  to  yield  to  the  Pope's  au- 
thority. He  required,  however,  that  the  Jesuits,  whom 
he  had  caused  to  be  excluded  from  these  nesiotiations,  should 
remain  ignorant  of  his  submission,  and  this  concession  was 
partially  granted.  He  had  declined  peace  on  the  terms 
proposed  by  them,  and  now  he  accepted  it  on  much  less 
advantageous  conditions;  and  his  Jansenist  pride  revolted 
at  the  mere  thought  of  such  a  triumph  for  his  adversaries. 

Antoine  Arnauld  had  yielded,  but  the  Bishop  of  Aleth 
still  remained  deaf  to  all  the  entreaties  of  his  Jansenist 
friends.  The  Archbishop  of  Sens,  who  had  already  estab- 
lished his  position  by  excommunicating  the  Jesuits  in 
his  diocese,  a  few  years  before,  at  length  found  an  irresist- 
ible argument.  "What  a  triumph  for  the  Jesuits,"  said 
he,  writing  to  the  Bishop,  "to  witness  the  failure  of  an  an 
dertaking  of  such  importance — an  affair  we  had  wisher  t- 
hide  from  them — and  thus  find  themselves  more  elevated 
than  ever  by  that  which  must  inevitably  have  been  their 
ruin. 

The  Bishop  of  Aleth,  yielding  to  this  "ally,  laid  down 
his  arms,  and  acknowledged  the  Pope's  authority.    Clem- 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  PAUL  OLIVA.  27 

ent  IX  accepted  the  submission  of  the  Jansenists,  in  the 
month  of  February,  1G69. 

Admitted  to  be  orthodox,  the  enemies  of  the  Society 
of  ^esus  had  tlie  field  clear  at  last.  They  might  now  set 
to  work,  and  labor,  with  much  more  chance  of  success,  to 
overthrow  and  destroy  the  Order  which  had,  for  so  long, 
constituted  itself  the  bulwark  of  the  Holy  See.  Later, 
they  would  give  their  attention  to  the  destruction  of  the 
Papacy. 

Father  Bourdaloue,  who  was  still  young,  was  delivering 
his  first  course  of  sermons  in  Paris.  Although  but 
twenty-seven  years  of  age,  both  the  court  and  the  people 
rushed  to  the  churches  where  he  was  to  preach.  In 
vain  did  the  Jansenists  employ  every  means  in  their 
power  to  damage  the  Jesuit  in  public  estimation,  and  to 
deprive  him  of  the  favor  of  the  court.  Good  sense  and 
good  taste  triumphed  over  party  spirit.  The  illustrious 
Bourdaloue  had  not  one  hearer  the  less. 

In  the  same  year,  the  Cabal  circulated  a  tissue  of  in- 
famous libels,  entitled  Morale  Pratique  des  Jeauifes^  a 
work  to  which  Dr.  Arnauld  afiixed  his  name,  and  which 
elicited  general  indignation.  A  decree  of  the  Parliament 
condemned  it  to  be  publicly  burned,  which  sentence  was 
carried  out  on  the  loth  of  September,  1669. 

While  the  missionaries  of  China  were  incarcerated  in 
the  prisons  of  Canton,  and  others  evading  the  vigilance 
of  the  Bonzes,  secretly  exercised  their  holy  ministry, 
the  native  catechists,  who  had  been  formed  by  them  for 
that  mission,  increased  the  number  of  the  catechumens, 
baptized  the  children  and  the  dying,  kept  alive  the  faith 
in  souls,  and  prepared  a  rich  harvest. 

In  1668,  Father  Sarpeti.  a  Dominican,  who  had  had 
time  and  means  to  study  the  real  value  of  the  national 
customs  tolerated  by  the  Jesuits,  and  who  had  been  able 
to    make    himself    ac(^uainted    with     the    immense    good 


28  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

effected  by  their  apostleship,  felt  himself  bound  to  give 
them  the  folloAvins;  testimonial: 

"  I  certify,  in  the  first  place,  that,  in  my  opinion,  that  which 
the  missionary  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  profess  to  practise, 
in  allowing;  or  toleratino;  certain  ceremonies  which  the  Chinese 
Christians  employ,  in  honor  of  Confucius  and  their  departed  an- 
cestors, is  not  only  free  from  danger  of  sin,  as  this  step  has  been 
approved  by  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  General  Inquisition, 
but  that,  taking  into  consideration  the  beliefs  of  the  various  sects 
in  China,  this  opinion  is  much  more  probably  true  than  its  con- 
trary, and  is  very  useful,  not  to  say  necessary,  in  order  to  develop 
the  truths  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Infidels. 

"  Secondly.  I  certify  that  the  Jesuit  Fathers  have  announced 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  in  this  Empire  of  China,  not 
only  by  preaching,  but  also  by  means  of  the  number  of  books 
which  they  have  written  ;  that  they  explain,  with  great  care, 
to  their  neophytes  the  mysteries  of  the  Passion,  and  that,  in 
some  of  their  houses,  there  are  confraternities  of  the  Passion  of 
Our  Lord. 

"  Thirdly.  I  certify,  and,  for  as  much  as  there  is  need,  I  declare, 
on  oath,  that  it  is  neither  at  the  prayer  or  persuasion  of  any 
person  whatsoever,  but  solely  through  love  of  the  truth,  that  I 
have  been  influenced  to  render  the  above  testimony." 

This  document  was  not  without  value,  after  the  many 
discussions  which  this  subject  had  called  forth,  and  the 
various  interpretations  so  often  heretofore  given,  and  still 
given  to  the  present  day,  to  this  toleration  of  the  first 
apostles  of  China. 

In  1669,  the  young  Emperor,  Kang-Hi,  attained  his 
majority.  The  first  act  of  his  sovereign  authority  was 
the  recalling  of  the  Jesuits,  the  deliverance  of  the  cap- 
tive missionaries,  and  orders  for  public  funeral  honors  to 
Father  Adam  Schall,  at  the  expense  of  the  state.  A 
Mandarin  represented  the  Emperor  on  the  occasion  of 
these  obsequies.  That  which  Kang-Hi  most  admired  in 
the   Jesuits  was  their  learning.     He    accorded   them   the 


*  GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER   PAUL    OLIVA.  29 

privilege  of  propagating  tlicir  religion,  so  as,  by  this 
means,  to  promote  the  teaching  of  the  sciences;  and  he 
appointed  Father  Ferdinand  Yerbiest  President  of  the 
Mathematical  Tribunal.  The  patronage  and  support  of 
the  sovereign  thus  facilitating  the  apostleship  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, the  number  of  Christians  augmented  by  twenty 
thousand  in  the  first  year  after  their  recall. 

Clement  IX  died  on  the  9th  of  December,  1G69,  and 
Cardinal  Altieri,  who  was  elected  on  the  29th  of  April, 
1670,  succeeded  His  Holiness,  under  the  name  of  Clement 
X,  and  appeared  as  favorably  disposed  toward  the  Jesuits  as 
his  predecessors.  He  even  raised  Father  Nithard  to  the 
dignity  of  Cardinal,  en  the  22d  of  February,  1673. 

On  the  surface,  all  appeared  calm  as  regarded  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus,  when,  in  1675,  a  Frenchman  presented 
himself  at  the  palace  of  Compton,  Bishop  of  London,  re- 
questing an  interview  with  His  Lordship.  Having  been 
asked  his  name,  he  replied,  "  Hippolyte  du  Chatelet  de 
Luzancy."  The  double  particle  produced  the  desired 
effect.  The  great  nobleman  was  soon  ushered  into  the 
presence  of  the  Anglican  Bishop,  and  the  conversation 
commenced : 

"  I  am  a  Jesuit,"  said  the  Frenchman,  "  but,  impelled 
by  my  convictions,  I  desire  to  embrace  Calvinism.  All 
the  crimes  of  which  I  have  been  witness  or  confidant, 
have  sufiiciently  enlightened  me.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
avow  that  the  Reformed  religion  is  the  only  one  conform- 
able to  reason  and  to  the  necessities  of  our  times.  If 
you  desire  to  receive  my  recantation,  I  am  with  you." 

"  Most  \villingly,"  replied  the  prelate,  heartily  em- 
bracing him.  "  And  do  you  not  fear  that  the  Jesuits 
will  seek  you,  and   avenge  themselves  of  your  desertion?" 

"  I  am  sur«  of  it;  but,  before  all,  I  must  obey  the  dic- 
tates of  my  conscience!" 

The  apostate  uttered  these  last  words  in  such  a  theat- 
40 


30  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS.       * 

rical  tone  of  voice,  that  Bishop  Compton  was  affected. 
He  lavished  upon  him  words  of  encouragement,  and  tri- 
umphantly introduced  him  to  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  He  had  him  preach  in  the  leading 
pulpits  of  London,  and  nothing  was  talked  of  but  the 
converted  Jesuit.  But  the  triumph  was  not  yet  complete 
for  the  enemies  of  the  Jesuits;  they  needed  still  more. 
Luzancy  sought  a  member  of  Parliament,  to  whom  he- 
said  : 

"  I  come  to  place  myself  under  the  protection  of  your 
Lordship,  for  Father  St.  Germain,  Confessor  of  the  Duch- 
ess of  York,  came  unexpectedly  upon  me  in  my  own 
house,  placed  his  poinard  to  my  breast,  and  threatened 
to  pierce  me  to  the  heart  if  I  did  not  sign  the  retrac- 
tion which  he  placed  before  me.  I  was  compelled  to  sign 
it  to  save  my  life.  Such  is  what  the  Jesuits  are  capa- 
ble of!" 

The  imposture  was  barefaced,  but  there  were  few  who 
did  not  feel  themselves  compelled  to  feign  belief.  The 
King  ordered  the  arrest  of  Father  St.  Germain,  and  the 
House  of  Commons  demanded  that  all  the  Jesuits  and 
Papists  be  confined  for  life  in  dungeons.  Luzancy,  when 
examined,  maintained  his  accusation,  and  added  : 

"  The  Jesuits  have,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Catholics, 
organized  a  conspiracy,  which  is  to  be  made  known  si- 
multaneously in  London  and  Paris.  The  object  of  this 
conspiracy  is  the  massacre  of  the  Reformers.  The  Duke 
of  York  and  the  Kino-  himself  belong:  to  it." 

Luzancy  offered  to  produce  witnesses,  but  these  wit- 
nesses could  only  state  what  was  dictated  to  them,  as 
they  knew  nothing.  The  Parliament  was  not  the  less 
anxious  to  condemn  Father  St.  Germain,  and  the  rest  of 
the  Jesuits  with  him.  Unhappily  for  the  Anglicans, 
there  was  found,  in  France,  a  Protestant  minister  who 
could  not  find  it  in  his  conscience  to  permit  the  consum- 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER    PAUL   OLIVA.  31 

mation  of  sucli  iniquity,  and  who  made  known  to  the 
English  Parliament  the  real  history  of  the  personage 
whose  v-'onquest  had  caused  so  much  commotion.  This 
minisTcr,  whose  name  was  Justel,  had  known  Luzancy 
in  France,  and  now  publicly  denounced  him,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  acknowledge  that  he  had  no  right  to  the 
position  and  name  he  had  assumed. 

This  impostor  was  the  son  of  the  actress  Beauchateau. 
A_ftor  havini!"  filled  the  office  of  second  master  in  a  col- 
lege,  he  had  served  as  a  domestic,  was  accused  of  being 
concerned  in  a  forgery,  and  had  never  had  any  connection 
with  the  Jesuits.  The  Parliament  could  not  proceed  fur- 
ther against  the  Fathers,  and  left  them  at  liberty ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  it  did  not  conceive  it  to  be  their  duty  to 
attach  any  blame  to  the  impostor,  and  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don went  so  far  as  to  recompense  him  for  all  the  pains  he 
\sid  taken  to  destroy  the  Jesuits.  He  obtained  his  ad- 
mittance to  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  appointed  him 
Vicar,  at  Dover  Court,  in  the  county  of  Essex. 

In  the  same  year,  1675,  the  Jesuits  again  took  posses- 
sion of  their  houses  in  the  diocese  of  Sens.  The  Arch- 
bishop Gondrin  was  dead.  Carbon  de  Montpezat  suc- 
ceeded him,  and,  as  an  act  of  reparation,  had  requested 
Father  Chaurand  to  preach,  during  Advent  and  Lent,  at 
the  Cathedral. 

Father  Annat  had  requested  permission  to  resign  his 
position  as  Confessor  to  the  King,  and  he  retired  in  1670, 
being  succeeded  by  Father  Ferrier,  who  died  soon  after, 
and  who  was  replaced  by  P^re  Lachaise,  in  1675.  Like 
his  predecessor,  he  had  charge  of  ecclesiastical  benefices, 
which  tended  to  create  enemies  for  the  society;  for  the 
Fathers  regarded  merit,  and  not  favor,  in  the  selections 
they  presented  for  the  royal  nomination. 


32  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

III. 

On  the  13tli  of  August,  1678,  as  Charles  II,  of  Engian(), 
was  walking  in  Windsor  Park,  a  man  named  Kirby  came 
toward  him  to  warn  him  that  some  assassins,  who  were 
concealed  in  the  Park,  and  had  been  paid  by  the  Jesuits, 
intended  making  an  attempt  on  his  life,  unless  he  returned 
immediately  to  the  castle.  The  King  could  not  repicss  a 
smile  of  incredulit}^,  and  continued  his  walk,  while  ques- 
tioning Kirby  as  to  where  he  had  obtained  the  iaformation. 

"I  have  it  from  Dr.  Tongue,"  he  gravely  replied. 
"  The  Doctor  is  acquainted  with  the  whole  conspiracy,  and 
it  is  enough  to  make  one's  hair  stand  on  end  with  horror." 

"It  is  well,"  continued  the  King;  "the  affair  shall  be 
investigated." 

Charles  remembered  the  Luzancy  conspiracy,  and  had 
not  much  faith  in  the  one  which  had  just  been  denounced 
to  him.  However,  Dr.  Tongue  was  summoned  to  the 
court.  He  presented  himself,  accompanied  by  a  person- 
age who  revealed  the  whole  of  the  conspirators'  pUa, 
His  name  was  Titus  Gates. 

"  I  am,"  said  he,  "  the  principal  agent  of  the  Jesuits. 
I  know  all;  I  have  seen  all.  I  feigned  to  abjure  Calvin- 
ism and  embrace  Catholicity.  I  entered  the  Society  of 
Jesus  at  the  English  college  at  Yalladolid;  thence  I  went 
to  that  of  St.  Omer.  I  know  that,  under  the  pretext  of 
holding  a  congregation,  in  1669,  the  Jesuits  assembled  at 
St.  James'  Palace,  under  the  protection  of  His  Grace  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  that  there  they  organized  plans  of  con- 
spiracy such  as  should  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  all !  " 

Gates  perceiving  the  King's  incredulity,  made  use  of 
the  final  argument,  with  whir-h  he  had  prepared  himself. 
He  continued,  hastily: 

"In  testimony  of  the  truth  of  what  I  have  advanced,  I 
conjure  His  Majesty  to  allow  mc   to  write  a  note  to  His 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  PAUL  OLIVA.  33 

Grace  the  Lord  Treasurer,  to  describe  to  him  some  letters 
addressed  to  Father  Bedingfield,  which  it  would  be  im- 
portant to  intercept,  so  as  to  discover  the  proofs  of  this 
diabolical  plot." 

The  note  was  written  and  forwarded ;  but  Providence 
intervened.  The  Lord  Treasurer  was  absent,  and  Father 
Bedingfield,  passing  the  post-office  just  as  the  mail  ar- 
rived, went  in  and  procured  his  letters,  five  in  number. 
Not  recognizing  the  handwriting,  he  opened  them,  and 
found  that  they  bore  the  names  of  four  Jesuits;  but  the 
handwriting  was  not  theirs,  and  the  contents  fully  con- 
vinced him  that  they  were  forgeries.  He  carried  them  at 
once  to  the  Duke  of  York,  whose  confessor  he  was.  Gates, 
findinij:  that  he  was  detected,  but  that  he  was,  at  the  same 
time,  sustained  by  some,  still  persisted  in  his  accusations. 
The  Duke  of  York  had  him  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  in  the  presence  of  the  King.  On  being 
interrogated,  he  replied: 

"I  am  sure  of  what  I  state.  The  Jesuits,  urged  by  the 
Pope  and  by  the  King  of  France,  desire  the  annihilation 
of  Anglicanism,  the  assassination  of  the  King,  and  also 
of  the  Duke  of  York,  if  he  does  not  aid  them  in  their 
desiiins.  Pere  Lachaise  has  sent  them  considerable  sums 
of  money,  which  have  been  used  by  them  to  bribe  the 
Scotch  and  Irish,  in  order  to  induce  them  to  join  the 
conspiracy.  I  have  seen  all,  know  all,  and,  at  the  peril 
of  my  life,  have  revealed  all,  through  love  for  my  coun- 
try! Don  Juan  of  Austria,  whom  I  saw  at  Madrid,  in 
order  to  communicate  the  plan  to  him,  in  like  manner,  im- 
mediately joined  the  conspirators.  At  Paris,  I  saw  P^re 
Lachaise,  who  received  me  with  open  arms,  and  counted 
me  out  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling." 

The  King,  interrupting  the  loquacious  revealer,  said  : 

"  You  say  you  have  seen  Don  Juan  of  Austria?     De- 
scribe his  person." 
40* 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

,  "  The  Infante  Don  Juan  of  Austria  is  tall,  thin,  and  dark.'' 
The  King  and  the  Duke  of  York  glanced  at  each  other, 
and  smiled.     The  King  resumed  : 

"  ^yhere  did  you  see  Pere  Lachaise  count  out  the  ten 
thousand  pounds?" 

"  In  the  house  of  the  Jesuits,  close  by  the  Louvre." 
"  Stran";e  !  "  exclaimed  the  Kino;.     "  The  Jesuits  have 
no  house  within  a  mile  of  the  Louvre  ;  and  Don  Juan  of 
Austria  is  short,  and  very  fair  !  " 

The  King  and  his  brother  were  equally  indignant  at  this 
unparalleled  audacity  and  imposture.  The  Parliament, 
on  the  contrary,  saw  prospects  of  success  in  the  very  ab- 
surdity of  the  calumny,  and  relying  upon  public  simplicity, 
ordered  the  arrest  of  all  the  Jesuits  accused,  and  the  seizure 
of  all  their  papers.  Their  most  private  correspondence  did 
not  betray  the  least  indications  of  conspiracy  ;  there  was 
not  even  ground  for  suspicion,  Coleman,  Secretary  to  the 
Duchess  of  York,  corresponded  with  Pere  Lachaise.  They 
hoped  to  find  among  his  papers  means  of  compromising  the 
Jesuits,  and,  in  fact,  they  found  a  few  words  of  hope  for 
the  progress  of  Catholicity  in  England.  This  was  more 
than  sufficient  to  give  over  to  the  fanatics  that  Jesuit  blood 
for  which  they  so  ardently  thirsted.  Besides,  Sir  Ed- 
mund Godfrey,  who  had  received  Gates'  first  depositions, 
had  just  died  suddenly.  Two  surgeons  declared  that 
they  found  marks  of  violence  on  his  body;  hence  the 
Jesuits  had  killed  him.  He  was  their  friend  and  that 
of  Coleman ;  still  it  was  certain  that  they  were  the  in- 
stigators of* his  assassination.  As  he  was  the  victim  of 
the  Jesuits,  so  was  he,  therefore,  a  martyr,  and  as  such 
his  remains  were  exposed  for  public  veneration.  "  Behold," 
exclaimed  they,  "  of  what  the  Jesuits  are  capable  !  If  they 
thus  treat  their  friends,  what  will  they  not  do  to  their  ene- 
mies? Their  plot  is  discovered.  They  desire  to  poison 
or  massacre  all  Protestants  to  the  last  man  I " 


GENERALSHIP.  OF    FATHER   PAUL   OLIVA.  35 

The  Parliament  feigned  fear,  and  conjured  the  King  to 
guard  against  the  dagger  or  the  poison  of  the  Jesuits. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  offered  five  hundred  pounds  sterling  to 
any  one  who  should  discover  the  murderers  of  Godfrey. 
A  few  days  after,  one  Bedloe  presented  himself  before  the 
Parliament,  to  claim  the  reward  promised  for  the  revela- 
tion which  he  came  to  make. 

"  Lord  Belasyse,"  said  he,  "  was  the  instigator  of  the 
crime,  and  it  was  I,  aided  by  several  Jesuits,  who  drew 
Sir  Edmund  Godfrey  into  the  court-yard  of  Somerset 
House,  the  residence  of  the  Queen.  There  he  was  assas- 
sinated by  the  Jesuits." 

Being  questioned  as  to  the  time  when  the  crime  was 
committed,  Bedloe  named  a  precise  hour.  Now,  at  that 
very  time,  the  King  himself  had  been  in  Somerset  House, 
with  a  sentinel  at  each  entrance,  and  a  guard  in  the  court- 
yard, where  the  crime  was  pretended  to  have  been  com- 
mitted. 

To  save  appearances,  it  was  necessary  that  the  King 
should  be  persuaded  of  the  constant  plotting  of  the  Jesuits, 
in  order  that  Parliament  might  have  the  satisfaction  of 
sending  to  the  scaffold  such  of  those  apostles  as  should 
cause  them  any  umbrage. 

The  fertile  imagination  of  Titus  Gates  came  to  his  as- 
sistance. Seconded  by  that  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  it 
brought  to  light  a  most  mysterious  plan  concocted  by  the 
Jesuits,  and  the  court  heard  with  alarm  that  the  Pope  had 
declared  himself  Sovereign  of  Great  Britain,  and  assigned 
the  government  of  it  to  Father  Oliva,  General  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus,  who  was  to  have  the  disposal  of  all  the  state 
offices.  Already  Lord  Arundel  is  appointed  Chancellor; 
the  Earl  of  Powis,  Treasurer  ;  Lord  Belasyse,  Commander- 
in-chief;  Lord  Petre,  Lieutenant-General ;  Lords  Talbot, 
brothers,  Commanding  Officers  in  Ireland  ;  Sir  Godolphin, 
Keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal ;  Sir  Coleman^  Secretary  of  State  ; 


36  HISTORF    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

to  the  Viscount  Stafford  was  intrusted  a  mysterious  charge, 
which  it  was  impossible  to  make  known  without  danger; 
and  Father  Whitbread,  Provincial  of  England,  was  to  be 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

On  that  very  same  day,  the  whole  of  the  above-named 
personages  were  committed  to  the  Tower  of  London, 

"  My  Lord,"  said  Dr.  Burnet,  to  Shaftsebury,  "do  you 
not  perceive  that  you  can  expect  but  cut-throats  for  wit- 
nesses?" 

"And  you.  Doctor,  do  you  not  see,"  replied  His  Lord- 
ship, "that  the  more  absurd  our  conspiracy  is,  the  more 
will  the  people,  thirsting  for  the  marvellous,  be  credulous?  " 

If  the  Anglican  doctor  had  not  consiorned  this  observa- 
tion  and  this  answer  to  writing,  it  would  be  almost  im- 
possible to  believe  it.  Nevertheless,  one  is  constrained  to 
accept  it  as  true  ;  for  it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  this  in- 
fernal machination,  of  which  the  ridiculous  aspect  and  the 
monstrous  absurdity  escaped  no  one,  caused  six  Jesuits  to 
be  put  to  death,  and  to  perish,  like  criminals,  by  the  hand 
of  the  executioner!  They  were  the  Fathers  Whitbread, 
Ireland,  Fenwick,  Waring,  Gavin,  and  Turner.  Father 
Claude  de  la  Colombiere,  Chaplain  of  the  Duchess  of  York, 
was  banished  from  the  British  territory ;  for  he  being  a 
French  subject,  England  feared  the  power  of  the  great 
King.  Fathers  Harvey,  Cotton,  and  Jennison  died  in 
prison. 

The  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  received  this  pain- 
ful intelligence  a  short  time  prior  to  his  death.  But  this 
fresh  inscription  in  the  martyrology  of  the  Order  car- 
ried with  it  a  hope  and  a  glory.  Father  Oliva  bore  with 
him  other  consolations.  He  had  learned  that  the  Jesuits 
in  China  enjoyed  greater  favor  than  ever,  and  that  they 
took  every  advantage  of  it  to  propagate  Christianity 
throughout  the  entire  extent  of  the  Celestial  Empire. 

In  Madura,  Father  John  de  Britto,  who,  after  the  ex- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PAUL  OLIVA.  37 

ample  of  Robert  Nobili,  had  become  a  Scmiassl,  renewed 
all  the  wonders  of  the  zeal  and  the  charity  of  his  pre- 
decessor. The  number  of  Christian  settlements  increased 
rapidly  through  his  ministry,  and  he  projected  fresh  con- 
quests in  still  more  distant  states,  where  no  missionary 
had  yet  ventured. 

Faiher  Oliva  died  on  the  26th  of  November,  1681, 
after  having  appointed  Father  Charles  de  Noyelle  Vicar- 
General. 


38  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY    OP   JESUS. 


6tiuralsl]i8  of  |alhr  CIprles  h  UoBclIe.   • 

TWELFTH    GENERAL, 

1681  —  1687. 
I. 

Father  Charles  de  Noyelle  was  a  Belgian,  and  was 
sixty-seven  years  of  age.  His  rare  prudence  and  concilia- 
tory manners  having  secured  the  votes  of  all,  he  was  unani- 
mously elected  on  the  5th  of  July,  1682.  One  vote  alone 
was  wanting,  and  that  was  his  own. 

The  Kings  of  France  and  Spain  were,  at  that  time,  on 
very  bad  terms  with  each  other,  each  claiming  precedence 
in  all  the  royal  courts  where  their  ambassadors  came  to- 
gether. Both  demanded  that  the  General  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  should,  on  the  day  of  his  election,  present  him- 
self to  his  ambassador,  before  paying  his  respects  to  that 
of  his  rival.  It  was  a  matter  of  difficulty  to  conciliate 
them  on  this  point.  Charles  de  Noyelle,  after  visiting 
the  Pope,  and  receiving  his  benediction,  went  to  the  Duke 
d'Estree,  the  French  Ambassador,  and  thence  proceeded  to 
the  Spanish  Ambassador.  The  latter  having  quickly  com- 
municated this  important  fact  to  his  sovereign,  the  latter 
became  excited  to  such  a  degree  that  it  was  with  difficulty 
he  could  be  appeased  by  his  confessor,  Thomas  Carbonello, 
Bishop  of  Siguenza,  a  Dominican. 

Louis  XIV,  to  whom  the  Holy  See  had  granted  the 
privilege  of  enjoying  the  revenues  of  some  vacant  Sees, 
had    unjustly   claimed   those   of   all   the   vacant    bishoprics 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATUER  CHARLES  DE  NOYELLE.     3S 

of  France,  without  distinction.  This  was  termed  a  regal 
right.  Pope  Innocent  XI  protested  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  King  on  the  property  of  the  Church,  but 
the  King  wouUl  not  give  way.  The  Parliament,  who  de- 
sired nothing  better  than  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Home, 
joined  the  bishops,  and  requested  the  King  to  order  a 
general  assembly  of  the  clergy  of  France,  so  as  to  ex- 
amine into  the  regal  rights.  On  the  19th  of  March,  1C82, 
the  prelates  who  composed  that  synod  approved  the  four 
articles  declaring  that  the  temporal  power  is  independent 
of  spiritual  power ;  that  a  council  was  superior  to  the 
Pope  ;  that  the  privileges  of  the  Galilean  Church  were 
inviolable;  that  the  decision  of  the  Pope,  even  in  matters 
of  faith,  was  not  infallible,  if  it  had  not  the  assent  of  the 
Church.  On  the  22d  of  March,  the  various  bodies  of 
teachers,  and  all  religious  Institutions,  were  ordered  to 
subscribe  to  these  four  articles,  and  to  inculcate  them.  It 
was,  at  the  same  time,  forbidden  to  teach  the  contrary 
propositions.  Several  doctors  of  the  Society  of  the  Sor- 
bonne  were  banished  for  having  refused  to  conform  to  an 
order  which  was  against  their  conscience.  The  Jesuits 
alone  were  exempted  by  the  King  from  this  formality. 

In  the  same  year,  1682,  Louis  XIV  founded  a  semin- 
ary and  college  in  the  city  of  Strasburg,  which  he  had 
just  won  to  France,  and  he  confided  the  direction  of  these 
two  houses  to  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  entire  popula- 
tion was  Protestant.  The  Fathers  preached  and  instructed 
the  public  mind,  and  won  the  hearts  and  touched  the 
souls  of  the  people,  bringing  back  a  number  of  heretics 
to  the  true  fold.  Their  two  principal  ministers,  Pisto- 
rius  and  Stachs,  assisted  at  the  conferences  of  Father 
Dez,  and  renounced  their  errors  in  that  edifice  where  they 
had  taught  them.  Dr.  Ulric  Olbrecht.  whom  Bossuet 
had  failed  to  convince,  was  overcome,  and  converted  by 
the  same  Jesuit,  and  this  conversion  led  to  a  great  many 


40  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

others.  The  Fathers  preached  in  the  rural  districts,  and 
led  back  crowds  of  simple  souls  who  had  but  strayed 
away. 

On  the  22d  of  October,  1685,  the  Chancellor  Letellier 
ratified  that  edict  which  revoked  the  celebrated  Edict  of 
Nantes,  accorded  by  Henry  IV  in  favor  of  the  Calvinists. 
This  revocation,  which  Pere  Lachaise  had  endeavored  to 
combat,  and  which  all  the  Jesuits  who  had  been  con- 
sulted had,  in  like  manner,  opposed,  was  attributed  by 
the  Protestants  to  the  influence  of  the  King's  Confessor. 
And  it  was,  in  fact,  to  be  expected.  .  The  Protestants  had 
so  violently  and  so  cruelly  persecuted  the  Jesuits,  that 
they  could  not  believe  them  to  be  strangers  to  a  measure 
by  which  they  w^ould  be  avenged.  Heresy  sought  the 
destruction  of  Catholicity  by  drowning  it  in  the  blood  of 
the  Jesuits;  but  it  exacted  for  itself  full  liberty,  and 
could  not  brook  that  any  should  complain  of  its  extreme 
ferocity.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  exas- 
perated them,  and  they  had  recourse  to  arms,  and  openly 
revolted. 

The  Jesuits,  in  like  manner,  had  recourse  to  arms,  but 
they  were  such  as  they  were  in  the  habit  of  wielding. 
They  dispersed  themselves  through  the  provinces,  preached 
in  the  towns  and  rural  districts,  and  gave  missions  in  all 
directions. 

The  Protestants  had  raised  a  cry  of  alarm,  which  was 
to  be  reechoed  by  the  heretics  throughout  Europe.  The 
most  vehement  were  those  of  Holland.  They  designated 
Louis  XIV  a  Jesuit.  This  was  the  signal  for  the  out- 
break. The  Society  of  Jesus  had  in  Holland  forty-five 
residences  and  sixty-four  Fathers.  Their  churches  were 
ransacked,  several  of  the  Fathers  were  cast  into  prison, 
insulted,  menaced,  and  ill-treated.  And  all  this  to  expi- 
ate an  act  willed  by  the  King  of  France — an  act  for  which 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  CHARLES   DE   NOYELLE.     41 

the  Jesuits  were  not  responsible,  and  wliicli  some  of  tlicra 
had  dared  to  oppose  ! 

Innocent  XI  could  not  approve  of  the  four  articles 
adopted  by  the  clergy  of  France  in  1G82.  He  testified  his 
disapprobation  by  precluding  from  canonical  institution 
all  the  bishops  appointed  by  Louis  XIV.  P6re  Lachaise 
endeavored  to  pacify  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  by  the  inter- 
mediary of  the  General  of  the  society.  But  Innocent  XI 
was  inflexible.  He  sought  to  uphold,  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent, the  riirhts  of  the  Church. 

Charles  II  of  England  died  on  the  16th  of  February, 
1G85,  abjuring  Anglicanism,  and  acknowledging  the  truth, 
at  the  moment  of  appearing  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Almighty  God.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  the 
Duke  of  York,  who,  being  a  sincere  and  fervent  Catholic, 
threw  open  the  prison  doors  to  all  those  whom  attach- 
ment to  their  faith  had  detained  there.  The  Jesuits  had 
resumed  their  labors,  and  were  overwhelmed  with  favors 
by  James  II.  This  prince  desired,  as  it  were,  to  make 
amends  for  the  long  and  grievous  persecutions  they  had 
endured  under  his  predecessors. 

The  news  from  China  was  of  the  most  consoling  and 
glorious  kind  for  religion.  Pope  Innocent  XI,  having 
heard  that  the  Emperor  Kang-Hi  had  issued  a  decree  de- 
claring the  Christian  religion  holy  and  irreproachable, 
congratulated  Father  Yerbiest,  the  Provincial,  on  the  pro- 
digious success  of  his  mission,  by  a  most  flattering  brief, 
dated  December  3,  1681. 

General  Usanguey,  who,  at  an  earlier  period,  revolted  in 
favor  of  the  Tartar  dynasty,  had  just  rebelled  against  it, 
and  intrenched  in  the  mountains.  He  incited  the  people 
to  insurrection.  Without  artillery,  the  Emperor  was  un- 
able successfully  to  attack  him.  He  asked  Father  Yer- 
biest to  have  cannon  cast  for  him.     The   Father  replied 

that  his  ministry  was,  above  all,  a  ministry  of  peace,  and 
41 


42  .  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

that  lie  could  not  accede  to  the  expressed  desire.  The 
Pagans  took  advantage  of  this  refusal,  and  used  it  to  the 
detriment  of  the  missionaries,  by  persuading  the  Emperor 
that  Father  Yerbiest  was  bribed  by  Usanguey,  and  was  about 
to  hand  over  to  him  the  empire.  Kang-Hi  threatened  the 
Jesuits  and  the  Christians  with  his  displeasure,  and  Father 
Verbiest  yielded  to  the  request  of  the  monarch.  He  es- 
tablished a  foundery,  had  cannon  cast,  directed  all  the 
laborers,  and  Usanguey  was  defeated.  The  Emperor, 
having  thus  triumphed,  desired  to  reward  the  Jesuits. 
Father  Verbiest  took  care  to  avail  himself  of  this ;  but 
he  made  choice  of  his  own  reward.  He  requested  Kang- 
Hi  to  allow  him  to  send  for  more  missionaries,  and  that 
French  Fathers  should  be  called  in  preference  to  any 
others,  because  their  character  sympathized  more  easily 
with  that  of  the  Chinese.  This  favor  was  readily  accorded. 
Father  Charles  de  Noyelle  passed  to  another  world  on 
the  12th  of  December,  1686.  He  had  nominated  Father 
Marius  Vicar-General,  by  whom  the  assembling  of  the 
Congregation  was  fixed  for  the  21st  of  Juue,  1687. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.    -13 


THIRTEENTH   GENERAL. 
lesr — 1706. 

I. 

The  period  of  great  struggles  had  passed.  The  Society 
of  Jesus  had  reached  the  climax  of  its  greatness  and  glory. 
It  had  attained  the  utmost  possible  development,  pro- 
duced the  greatest  geniuses  and  the  most  valiant  heroes, 
multiplied  its  saints,  lavished  its  martyrs,  given  millions 
of  souls  to  the  Church,  and  planted  its  standard  in  all  parts 
of  the  known  world.  Let  us  not,  however,  be  forgetful 
of  the  vision  of  its  holy  founder  at  La  Storta.  Let  us  re- 
call to  mind  that  Jesus  pointed  out  his  Cross  to  the  nas- 
cent society  at  the  same  moment  that  He  promised  it  His 
assistance  and  support. 

The  rivalry  continued  between  France  and  Spain.  Louis 
XIV,  having  conquered  Flanders,  wished  that  it  should 
be  united  to  the  Assistance  of  France  for  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  The  King  of  Spain  then  demanded  that  all  the 
provinces  of  the  Order  dependent  upon  his  states  should 
be  joined  to  the  Assistance  of  Spain.  Charles  de  Noyelle 
hud  obtained  a  postponement,  and  so  matters  remained  as 
heretofore.  But  on  the  day  of  the  election  of  Father 
Thyrsus  Gonzales,  which  was  on  the  6th  of 'July,  1687,  the 
French  Ambassador  again  introduced  the  demand  of  Louis 
XIV.     The  Spanish  Ambassador  expressed  a  like  desire 


44  HISTORY  OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

ia  the  name  of  his  sovereign.  The  new  General  implored 
both  one  and  the  other  to  obtain  the  forbearance  of  their 
respective  princes,  as  the  changes  they  desired  would  strike 
at  the  discipline  established  by  the  rules  of  the  Society. 
The  will  of  Louis  XIV  was  not  thus  to  be  controlled.  On 
the  26th  of  April,  1688,  he  commanded  Father  Paul  Fon- 
taine, Assistant  of  France,  to  return  to  his  kingdom,  with 
the  rest  of  the  French  Fathers  then  in  Rome. 

On  the  11th  of  October,  the  King  went  still  further.  He 
forbade  the  Jesuits  who  were  his  subjects  to  correspond 
with  their  General.  They  obeyed,  and  then  pointed  out 
the  disadvantages  of  such  a  state  of  things.  New  Superiors 
could  not  be  appointed,  vows  could  no  longer  be  received, 
the  Order  degenerated,  and  was  declining  in  France. 
Louis  XIV  then  proposed  to  name  a  Superior  for  all  the 
provinces  of  the  kingdom,  under  the  title  of  Vicar,  with  au- 
thority coequal  with  that  of  the  General.  This  negotiation 
was  confided  to  the  ambassador,  who  forthwith  proceeded 
to  Home.  The  General  refused  thus  to  break  up  the  so- 
ciety. He  could  not  alter  the  administration  of  the  insti- 
tute, and,  moreover,  he  could  not  accord  to  the  King  of 
France  a  concession  which  the  King  of  Spain,  and  other 
sovereigns,  also,  would  demand  in  their  turn.  Louis  XIV 
feared  that  the  General,  who  was  a  Spaniard,  was  more  at- 
tached to  the  rival  power  than  to  himself  personally  or  to 
France.  The  King  of  Spain,  on  the  contrary,  felt  con- 
vinced that  the  General  sacrificed  all  feelings  of  nation- 
ality in  the  general  service  and  interests  of  France.  It 
waks  important  to  prove  to  the  twomonarchs  that  they  were 
both  laboring  under  the  same  erroneous  impressions.  This 
is  precisely  what  Father  Gonzales  did  by  adhering  strictly 
to  the  rules  of  his  Order. 

* 

"You  might,"  said  the  Ambassador  of  Louis  XIV, 
"  provisionally  confide  the  government  of  the  five  prov- 
inces either  to  Father  Fontaine  or  to  the  Provincial  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.  45 

Paris,  reserving,  at  the  same  time,  the  authority  of  General 
for  the  future." 

"  No  one  could  answer  for  the  consequences  which  might 
result  from  such  a  step,"  replied  Father  Gonzales.  "  The 
misunderstanding  now  existing  between  the  King  of  France 
and  the  General  of  the  Society  will  terminate,  at  latest,  on 
the  death  of  one  or  the  other,  and  I  have  great  hopes  that 
it  will  end  sooner.  It  would  not  be  thus  with  the  author- 
ity of  the  General  attacked  ;  its  loss  would  be  irreparable." 

Louis  XIV  had  not  looked  for  this  opposition,  but  he 
finally  submitted. 

It  was  not  against  the  sovereigns  of  France  and  Spain 
alone  that  the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  had  to  con- 
tend. James  II  of  England  had  become  much  attached 
to  his  confessor,  Father  Edward  Petre,  and  desired  to  raise 
him  to  the  episcopacy.  The  Pope  objected.  The  King  took 
umbrage,  and  demanded  a  Cardinal's  hat  for  the  same  Jes- 
uit. The  General  so  strenuously  opposed  it,  that  James 
was,  at  last,  constrained  to  succumb  ;  but  he  made  amends 
for  it,  by  compelling  Father  Edward,  his  subject,  to  enter 
his  council,  as  he  wished  to  have  him  ever  near  his  person. 
The  General  in  vain  protested  against  this  court  life  for 
one  of  his  religious,  but  the  King  insisted. 

On  the  other  hand,  Joseph  I,  Emperor  of  Germany, 
forced  his  confessor,  a  Jesuit,  to  take  an  active  part  in  state 
affairs.  Father  Thyrsus  Gonzales  severely  censured  the 
Father,  and,  finding  his  reproof  useless,  summoned  him  to 
Kome.  On  hearing  this,  the  Emperor  replied  to  the  Pope's 
Nuncio,  who  urged  that  the  order  was  imperative  : 

"Tell  the  Father-General  that  if,  contrary  to  my  wish, 
my  confessor  must  go  to  Rome,  he  shall  not  go  alone ;  for 
all  the  Jesuits  in  my  states  shall  accompany  him,  and  be 
prohibited  returning." 

The  interests  of  religion  in  a  Protestant  country  caused 
the  General  to  yield.     Joseph  I  and  James  II  each  re- 
41* 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    Or    JESUS. 

tained  their  favorite  Father,  whom  they  made  their  chief 
counsellor,  but  it  was  a  source  of  deep  regret  for  the  en- 
tire society  ;  for  in  England  the  heretics  did  not  forgive 
James  for  the  confidence  thus  reposed  in  a  Jesuit,  nor  for 
the  honors  wLich  he  heaped  upon  him.  The  society  was 
daily  accused  of  usurping  power.  It  was  the  Society  of 
Jesus  that  reigned  under  the  name  of  J;imes  ;  it  was  the 
society,  likewise,  that  governed  through  Father  Edward 
Petre.  It  had  made  a  Jesuit  of  the  King  ;  erelong  it  would 
cause  a  horrible  slaughter  of  all  the  Anglicans.  Nothing, 
then,  remained  but  to  dethrone  the  Society  of  Jesus  by  the 
overthrow  of  the  Stuarts.  Such  was  the  pretext  used  by 
William  of  Orange  to  deprive  James  II  of  his  crown. 
Father  Petre  did  not  forsake  the  King  in  his  hour  of  trial; 
he  neither  left  him  during  his  struggles  against  the  usurper, 
nor  during  his  exile  in  France.       * 

The  General  could  not  prevent  the  full  confidence  in- 
spired by  his  religious,  and  which  was  reposed  in  them  by 
those  crowned  heads  who  permitted  them  to  approach  their 
persons.  In  China,  where  Father  Verbiest  had  just  died, 
the  Emperor  Kang-IIi  sent  for  Fathers  Francis  Gerbillon 
and  Thomas  Pereira,  and,  in  the  month  of  May,  1688,  he 
sent  the  former  as  his  ambassador  to  the  Czar  of  Muscovy, 
to  propose  conditions  of  peace  and  to  determine  the 
boundaries  of  the  two  empires.  He  was  accompanied  in 
this  important  mission  by  Father  Pereira.  The  Jesuit 
obtained  from  the  Czar  the  most  advantageous  terms 
for  Kang-Hi,  and,  on  his  return,  the  Emperor,  in  or- 
der to  express  his  satisfaction,  clothed  him  in  his  im- 
perial robes.  He  wished  Father  Gerbillon  to  reside  in 
his  palace,  and  instruct  him  in  mathematics;  he  also 
called  in  Father  Bouvet  to  teach  him  philosophy,  and  ia- 
•sisted  upon  his  residing  at  the  court.  The  Jesuits  used 
these  favors  only  as  means  for  the  advancement  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  were  not  unmindful  of  the  motto  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  '-'-To  the  greater  glory  of  God'^ 


GENERALSHIP  OP  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.  47 

II. 

Pope  Innocent  XI  died  on  the  10th  of  Au2:ust,  1080, 
defending  to  the  hist  the  power  of  the  Church,  whicli  had 
heen  attacked  hy  Louis  XIV,  witliout  having  yielded  one 
iota  to  this  imperious  monarch,  whom  few  cared  to  oppose. 
There  were,  at  this  time,  thirty  bishoprics  vacant  in 
France,  and  there  was  no  possible  hope  that,  after  the 
declaration  of  the  four  articles,  the  new  Pope,  Alexander 
VIII,  would  be  more  considerate  than  his  predecessor. 
The  bishops  felt  acutely  the  difficulties  of  the  position. 
Either  the  dioceses  were  to  be  left  without  bishops,  or 
France  would  have  to  acknowled2:e  herself  schismatic. 
The  Jesuits,  on  their  side,  could  no  longer  remain  deprived 
of  direct  intercourse  with  their  General.  Their  position, 
in  this  respect,  was  one  of  extreme  embarrassment.  To- 
ward the  close  of  the  year  1690,  the  five  Provincials  went 
to  cast  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  King,  and  to  urge  him 
not  to  prolong  the  then  existing  state  of  affairs,  which 
paralyzed  their  efforts  in  the  provinces.  They  pointed 
out  to  His  Majesty  that,  the  duty  of  princes  being  to  in- 
spire the  respect  due  to  all  legitimate  authority,  he  should 
not  withdraw  them  from  their  obedience  to  the  consti- 
tutions, and  from  the  direct  control  of  their  General. 
Louis  XIV  could  appreciate  such  language  as  this.  On 
the  22d  of  October,  he  wrote  to  the  five  Provincials,  ac- 
cording them  the  privilege  of  corresponding  with  their 
General,  as  they  had  been  formerly  in  the  habit  of  doing. 
Thus,  as  had  been  foreseen  by  Father  Gonzales  de  Santalla, 
the  misunderstanding  which  had  arisen  between  the  King 
of  France  and  the  Society  of  Jesus  had  been  settled  before 
the  death  of  either  party. 

Alexander  VIII  wore  the  tiara  but  a  few  months.  In- 
nocent XII,  Antonio  Pi2;natelli,  elected  on  the  12th  of 
July,  1691,  succeeded  him.     Immediately  after  his  elec- 


48  HISTORY   OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

tion,  the  French  bishops  sent  in  their  submission  to  him, 
in  regard  to  the  four  articles  of  1682.  Each  one  of  these 
ecclesiastics  declared  that  he  did  not  consider  as  at  all 
decided,  that  which  the  Assembly  of  the  Clergy  had  de- 
clared in  the  four  articles,  nor  as  ordered  that  which  it 
had  ordained.  The  Pope  was  satisfied  with  this  declara- 
tion; and  Louis  XIV  desiring,  at  length,  to  fill  the  vacant 
Sees,  and  unwilling  to  become  a  schismatic,  entered  into 
negotiations  with  Innocent  XII.  On  the  14:th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1693,  he  wrote  to  the  Pope: 

"  I  am  well  pleased  to  make  known  to  your  Holiness  that  I  have 
given  the  necessary  orders,  so  that  the  article  contained  in  my  edict 
of  the  22d  of  March,  1682,  concerning  the  declaration  made  by  the 
clergy  of  France,  to  which  I  had  been  coerced  by  prior  events,  be 
not  observed." 

In  the  same  year,  1693,  on  the  4th  of  February,  the 
Society  of  Jesus  lost  one  of  its  most  valiant  heroes.  John 
de  Britto — to  whom  Madura  was  not  a  sufficient  field,  who 
had  also  preached  the  Gospel  to  several  other  kingdoms, 
and  who  had  baptized  thirty  thousand  Pagans  in  3Ialabar— 
after  twenty  years  of  hardships  and  dangers,  sufiered  mar- 
tyrdom at  the  hands  of  the  Brahmins,  who  accused  him  of 
converting  the  idolaters  by  means  of  magic.  The  Church 
has  placed  him  among  the  beatified. 

At  the  same  enoch,  the  Jesuits  obtained  from  the  Em- 
peror  of  China  permission  to  erect  a  church  within  the 
walls  of  the  imperial  palace,  and  they  established  a  con- 
gregation for  the  preservation  and  promulgation  of  piety 
and  good  works.  The  Fathers  preached  the  Gospel  and 
taught  the  abstruse  sciences.  The  Brothers  became  phy- 
sicians, and  thus  gained  admiration  and  respect.  They 
had  at  first  devoted  themselves  to  the  care  of  the  poor; 
but,  erelong,  the  wealthy  and  the  great  sought  their  ad- 
vice, and  the  Emperor,  being  seized  with  a  dangerous  ill- 


QENERALSIIIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SA^TALLA.  49 

ness,  Brother  Ilhodes  was  called,  in  and  effected  his  cure. 
As  a  mark  of  his  gratitude,  the  Emperor  sent  to  the  so- 
ciety ingots  of  gold  to  the  value  of  two  hundred  thousand 
francs.  The  Superiors  placed  that  sum  in  the  hands  of 
the  Indian  Company,  with  instructions  to  appropriate  the 
interest  to  those  missions  in  China  and  India  which  miuht 
stand  in  need  of  it.^ 

Soon  another  religious  question  arose,  which  excited 
general  attention.  Bossuet  attacked  Quietism,  which  Fen- 
elon  defended  in'a  publication  called  "The  Maxims  of  the 
Saints."  Fenelon  was  the  friend  of  the  Jesuits.  Pere 
Lachaise  had  read,  appreciated,  and  admired  the  Maxims 
of  the  Saints.  He  had  praised  the  work  to  the  King,  and 
defended  it  a2;ainst  its  assailants.  This  was  enough  to 
cause  all  the  Jansenists  and  the  Gallicans  to  take  sides 
with  the  Bishop  of  Meaux  against  the  Archbishop  of  Cam- 
bray.  Those  who  had  not  even  perused  the  work  ap- 
peared to  be  its  most  bitter  adversaries.  Bossuet,  dis- 
covering theological  errors  in  it,  called  the  attention  of 
the  court  of  Rome  to  the  fact,  and  pressed  a  decision. 
The  book  was  finally  censured  by  the  Holy  See,  and  its 
illustrious  author,  with  the  most  striking  humility,  joined 
in  its  condemnation.  Thus  Fenelon  gave  to  the  world  an 
imperishable  example  of  filial  submission  to  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff,  at  a  period  when  all,  as  it  were,  conspired 
against   his   supreme    authority.     Pere    Lachaise   in   like 

*0n  the  suppression  of  the  society,  the  Indian  Company  applied 
the  interest  to  the  hospitals  ;  but  the  Jesuits,  continuing  their  mis- 
sions in  the  Indies,  claimed  the  amount  in  London,  which  was 
originally  intended  for  the  missions  of  Asia.  The  government 
severely  censured  this  misappropriation,  and  ordered  that  the  in- 
terest of  the  money  should  be  devoted  to  the  missions  of  the  ex- 
Jesuits  of  the  Indies  until  the  decease  of  the  last  among  them.  In 
1813,  there  was  not  a  single  survivor.  The  Propaganda  decided 
that  this  revenue  should  be  applied  to  the  Lazarists  of  the  Chinese 
missions. 


50  HISTORY  OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

manner  submitted,  and  ceased  to  euloaize  a  book  whose 
pious  and  renowned  author  he  had  always  esteemed;  but 
it  was  necessary  to  misinterpret  the  motives  of  a  Jesuit 
who  was  the  King's  Confessor,  and  had  control  of  the 
benefices.  The  adversaries  of  the  society  pretended  that 
Fenelon,  being  no  longer  in  the  royal  favor,  the  Jesuit 
sacrificed  his  friend  through  fear  of  displeasing  the  mon- 
arch. 

The  war  of  succession  placed  a  grandson  of  Louis  XIV 
on  the  Spanish  throne.  Innocent  XII  was  dead,  and,  in 
the  month  of  November,  1700,  the  conclave  appointed,  as 
his  successor,  Cardinal  Albani,  who  took  the  name  of 
Clement  XI.  The  occasion  appeared  favorable  to  Louis 
XIV  to  put  an  end  to  the  religious  dissensions  which  had 
been  excited  by  the  Jansenists  in  all  the  Catholic  states, 
more  particularly  in  France.  It  appeared  to  him  that 
this  sect  was  no  less  opposed  to  the  spiritual  than  they 
were  to  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope;  but  proofs  were 
wanting.  Quesnel  had  taken  refuge  at  Malines,  from 
which  place,  aided  by  his  friend,  Gerberon,  he  kept  alive 
the  flame  of  discord.  The  King  of  Spain,  at  the  request 
of  Louis  XIV,  had  them  both  arrested  in  1703,  and 
their  papers  seized  and  sent  to  Paris.  On  examining  their 
correspondence,  there  were  discovered  evident  proofs  of 
conspiracy  against  all  authority  in  general,  but  especially 
against  that  of  the  King  of  France.  The  Jesuits  had  fre- 
quently directed  the  attention  of  Louis  XIV  to  the  secret 
intentions  of  the  Jansenists.  Their  correspondence  now 
showed  that  the  Fathers  had  been  far-seeinjir. 

The  King,  being  firmly  resolved  to  uphold  his  author- 
ity and  have  it  respected,  ordered  thaf  the  Benedictine 
Thiroux  should  be  imprisoned  in  the  Bastile,  and  that 
Thierry  de  Viaixnes,  another  Benedictine,  who  avowed 
himself  the  author  of  the  pamphlet  against  Cardinal  de 
Noailles  on  the  Rtjiexions  Morales^  should  be  incarcerated 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.  51 

in  the  Tower  of  Vincennes.  Tlie  two  relif^ious  were  seri- 
ously implicated  by  letters  of  theirs,  found  among  the 
papers  of  Gerberon  and  Qucsnel. 

The  King  ordered  the  Jesuits  to  examine  the  papers 
of  the  two  leaders  of  the  sect,  in  order  to  be  fully  assured 
of  their  doctrine.  This  examination  was  made  by  the 
best  theologians  of  the  society  in  France,  in  the  country 
house  which  the  Jesuits  then  owned  at  Mont-Louis,  near 
Paris,  and  which  was  designated  by  the  people  the  house 
of  Pere  Lachaise.  "" 

The  Confessor  of  the  great  King  was  a  conspicuous 
personage.  Some  regarded  him  as  a  man  to  whom  the 
monarch  could  refuse  nothing,  and  in  this  they  were 
greatly  mistaken.  Others  saw  in  him  the  dispenser  of 
benefices.  The  people  only  looked  upon  the  appearance 
which  he  made.  He  was  seen  to  go  to  Mont-Louis  sev- 
eral times  a  week,  in  one  of  the  royal  equipages,  drawn 
by  six  horses,  and  they  considered  him  as  equal  to  a  duke 
or  a  peer.  For  the  entire  population  of  the  Faubourg  St. 
Antoine,  it  was  no  longer  a  body  of  Jesuits  who  were 
the  owners  of  the  country  house  at  Mont- Louis,  but  P^re 
Lachaise ;  hence  the  name  of  the  residence.^ 

Among  the  number  of  men  of  distinction  who  had  em- 
braced Jansenism,  was  llollin,  Rector  of  the  University. 
His  letters  to  Quesnel  implicated  him.  The  King  had 
personally  examined  them,  and  had  given  orders  for  Rol- 
lin's  arrest.  But  P^re  Lachaise  went  to  the  King,  and 
implored  His  Majesty  to  set  at  liberty  one  whom  he  desig- 


*  Mont-Louis  was  not  given  to  Pere  Lachaise  by  Louis  XIV,  as 
has  been  stated.  The  Jesuits  purchased  it  on  the  11th  of  August, 
1626,  when  Pere  Lachaise,  who  was  born  on  the  26th  of  August,  1624, 
was  but  two  years  old.  This  noble  mansion,  which  was  sold  after 
the  suppression  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  became  later  the  Cemetery 
of  the  East,  to  which  a  popular  error  has  given  the  name  of  the  Cem- 
etery of  Pere  Lachaise. 


52  HISTORY    OF    THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

nated  as  amonor  the  most  estimable  in  his  kingdom. 
Louis  XIV  was  not  deaf  to  these  entreaties  of  the  ven- 
erable religious,  and  accorded  him  his  prayer  by  pardon- 
ing liollin. 

The  Jansenists  inculcated  that  a  respectful  silence  was 
the  only  sign  of  submission  due  to  the  Holy  See.  Ot 
the  16th  of  July,  1705,  Clement  XI  condemned  this  doc- 
trine in  a  Bull,  which  the  clergy  of  France  accepted,  and 
which  was  placed  upon  the  Parliamentary  records.  The 
dissenters  all  exclaimed  that  this  Bull  was  the  work  of 
the  Jesuits.  This  was  to  be  expected.  As  to  the  good 
Fathers,  they  continued  to  devote  themselves  most  ardently 
to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls.  They 
apparently  disregarded  the  bitter  hatred  with  which  they 
were  so  incessantly  pursued.  At  the  very  climax  of  their 
trials  and  struggles,  they  gave  a  mission  in  the  Faubourg 
Saint  Marceau,  and  they  had  the  consolation  to  find  their 
labors  crowned  by  the  approach  of  twenty-two  thousand 
persons  to  the  holy  communion. 

III. 

The  missionaries  of  the  Orders  of  St.  Dominic  and 
St.  Francis  returned  to  China,  by  permission  of  the  Em- 
peror Kang-Hi — a  favor  obtained  by  the  learned  Jesuit 
who  enjoyed  his  confidence.  These  missionaries  being, 
like  their  predecessors  of  the  same  orders,  ignorant  of  the 
Chinese  language,  traditions,  and  customs,  became  alarmed 
at  the  honors  which  the  neophytes  paid  to  the  memory 
of  Confucius  and  to  their  ancestors.  The  toleration  of 
the  Jesuits  on  these  two  points  was  a  real  scandal  to  the 
purity  of  their  faith  and  scrupulosity,  for  these  customs 
appeared  to  them  idolatrous.  Another  ground  of  scruple 
was  the  name  of  King-Tien^  applied  to  God  by  the  Chris- 
tians, and  sanctioned  by  the  Jesuits.  Both  the  Domin- 
icans and  Franciscans  thought  themselves,  in  conscience, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.    53 

bound  to  inform  the  Vicar-Apostolic  of  these  practices. 
The  Jesuits  were  severely  censured,  and  were  unable  to 
convince  the  prelate  and  the  missionaries  that  the  honors 
paid  to  Confucius  were  merely  civil  ceremonies,  with 
which  the  Christians  did  not  associate  any  religious  ideas 
whatever,  and  that  the  word  King-  Tlen^  in  the  Chinese 
language,  simply  conveyed  the  idea  of  God  as  understood 
by  Christians.  The  Jesuits  wer3  fully  conversant  with 
the  language.  They  had  consulted  the  Chinese  author- 
ities upon  this  subject;  they  had  appealed  to  the  Man- 
darins and  the  learned,  in  order  to  be  fully  convinced 
of  the  fiiTl  meaning  of  all  such  matters,  and  they  had 
become  satisfied  that  these  practices  were  not  in  an- 
tagonism to  the  faith;  that  Christianity  could  only  be 
tolerated  in  the  empire  upon  the  terms  of  the  conces- 
sions they  had  made.  Forcibly  to  extinguish  these  cus- 
toms, was  to  close  the  empire  forever  against  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ  in  it.  Neither 
the  Dominicans  nor  the  Franciscans  would  be  satisfied 
with  these  reasons,  nor  would  the  Vicar-Apostolic  admit 
them;  and  the  Jesuits,  feeling  it  to  be  their  duty  not  to 
expose  Christianity  to  a  certain  fall,  continued  their 
apostleship,  on  the  same  conditions  as  before,  w^hile 
awaiting  the  decision  of  the  Holy  See,  to  whom  these 
questions  had  been  submitted  by  the  other  missionaries. 
They  thought  it  their  duty,  however,  to  obtain  from  the 
Emperor  a  formal  statement  as  to  the  importance  of  re- 
taining these  practices,  as  he  alone  had  the  right  to  in- 
terpret the  meaning,  and  to  impose  it  upon  his  subjects. 
In  the  course  of  the  year  1700,  Fathers  Antoine  Thomas, 
Philippe  Grimaldi,  Pereira,  Gerbillon,  Bouvet,  Joseph 
Suarez,  Kilian  Stumpf,  J.-B.  Regis,  Louis  Pernotte,  and 
Parennin,  the  latter  celebrated  for  his  learned  acquire- 
ments, humbly  addressed  themselves  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  to  whom  ihey  made  known  the  extent  and  mean- 
42 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

ing  of  the  practices  which,  until  this  time,  had  been  tol- 
erated by  them. 

They  had  before  them  the  words  of  their  Divine  Mas- 
ter :  "  /  have  yet  many  things  to  say  to  you,  hut  ye  can 
not  bear  them  nowy 

They  desired  to  lead  gently  those  whom  they  had  con- 
verted to  a  gradual  sacrifice  of  those  customs,  the  contin- 
uance of  which  might  be  open  to  misconstruction ;  but 
this  was  a  matter  of  time. 

The  court  of  Rome  had  long  been  occupied  upon  ques- 
tions of  controversy  between  the  missionaries  of  various 
orders  and  the  Jesuits. 

Might  the  honors  rendered  to  Confucius,  and  to  the 
memory  of  ancestors,  be  tolerated,  these  ceremonies  be- 
ing a  law  of  the  state,  and  the  educated  Chinese  declar- 
ing that  they  had  no  religious  application  whatever,  but 
were  purely  civil  ? 

What  word  in  the  Chinese  language  could  they  make 
use  of  to  convey  the  idea  of  God  ? 

In  order  to  decide  these  questions,  it  was  necessary  to 
be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  history,  customs,  and 
language  of  the  country.  The  Jesuits  alone  possessed 
this  knowledge,  and  they  could  not  be  judges  in  their  own 
case.  Clement  XI  sent  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  Patriarch 
of  Antioch,  to  the  Indies  and  to  China,  with  the  title 
and  powers  of  Apostolic  Legate,  and  confided  to  him  the 
important  task  of  investigating  matters  on  the  spot,  and 
of  putting  an  end  to  the  difi'erences  existing  among  the 
missionaries  in  Malabar  and  the  Celestial  Empire. 

The  Cardinal  set  out  with  the  determination  to  pro- 
Jiibit  whatever  might  recall  the  Pagan  rites  of  the  peoples 
pf  Asia.  At  Pondicherry,  on  the  23d  of  June,  1704,  he 
psued  an  order  to  that  efi"ect,  and  it  was  speedily  made 
known  throughout  all  the  missions.  The  Malabar  rites 
tolerated  by  the  Jesuits   were  designated   as   idolatrous. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.    55 

This  decision  caused  the  most  violent  commotion  along 
the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  Discontent  continued  to  spread 
until  it  reached  the  Chinese  Empire,  when,  on  the  18th 
of  April,  1705,  the  Cardinal,  on  arriving  at  Canton,  sent 
to  ask  the  Jesuits  to  obtain  for  him  safe  passage  to 
Pekin.  The  Fathers  applied  directly  to  the  Emperor, 
who  refused  to  receive  the  Cardinal ;  but  the  Jesuits, 
having  proved  to  him  that  this  refusal  to  give  audience 
to  the  envoy  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  would  be  visited 
upon  them,  and  be  the  cause  of  severe  censure,  Kang-Hi 
granted  that  which  they  desired,  and  consented  to  receive 
the  Legate.  These  negotiations  were  not  finally  concluded 
until  the  year  1706. 

In  Madura,  Father  John  de  Britto,  whom  the  Church 
has  honored  with  a  place  upon  her  altars,  notwithstanding 
his  toleration  of  the  Malabar  rites,  was  succeeded  in  his 
position  of  Saniassi  by  Father  Constant  Beschi,  who,  in 
order  to  win  over  the  higher  classes,  had  subjected  him- 
self to  a  course  of  life  the  most  intolerable  to  an  humble 
religious.  Habited  in  the  costume  adopted  by  Father 
Nobili,  he  never  went  abroad  but  in  a  palanquin^  never 
reclined  but  on  tiger-skins,  being  constantly  accompanied 
by  attendants,  waving  the  most  richly  decorated  fans,  while 
over  his  head  was  borne  by  another  attendant  a  magnificent 
parasol.  The  Indians  called  him  the  great  Viramamoum, 
treated  him  with  profound  respect,  and  yet  were  ignorant  of 
his  real  character  and  life.  The  mysterious  halo  with  which 
he  was  surrounded  was  the  guarantee  of  success.  The 
missionary  studied  the  poets  of  Hindostan,  composed  re- 
ligious songs,  in  which  he  developed  the  mysteries  of 
Christianity,  and  related  the  sufferings  of  the  God -man, 
the  maternity  of  the  ever-blessed  Virgin,  and  the  heroic 
virtues  of  the  saints. 

Constant  Beschi  was  not  the  only  one  who  outwardly  led 
the  life  of  a  Brahmin.     Other  Jesuits,  like  him,  devoted 


56  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

themselves  among  the  several  castes,  in  order  to  make  known 
to  these  idolaters  the  one  true  God,  to  make  them  appre- 
ciate the  sublime  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  prepare  them 
for  the  reception  of  the  yoke  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  won- 
derful patience  was  attended  by  success  and  martyrdom. 
On  the  1st  of  December,  1700,  Father  Bouchet  thus  wrote  : 

"  Our  mission  of  Madura  is  more  prosperous  than  ever,  AVe  have 
had  four  great  persecutions  this  year.  One  of  our  missionaries 
had  his  teeth  knocked  out  with  a  bludgeon,  and,  at  the  present 
time,  I  am  at  the  court  of  the  prince  of  these  territories,  in  order 
to  obtain  the  liberation  of  Father  Borghese,  wlio  has  already 
undergone  forty  days'  confinement  in  the  prison  of  Trichonopoly, 
together  with  four  of  his  catechists,  Avho  have  been  put  in  irons. 
But  the  blood  of  our  Christians,  shed  foi*Jesus  Christ,  is,  as  it  ever 
has  been,  the  seed  which  produces  other  converts. 

"As  for  myself,  during  the  last  five  years,  I  have  baptized  more 
than  eleven  thousand  persons,  and  nearly  twenty  thousand  since 
I  entered  this  mission.  I  have  the  direction  of  thirty  small 
churches,  and  about  thirty  thousand  Christians.  I  could  not  name 
the  precise  number  of  confessions,  but  I  believe  I  have  heard 
more  than  a  hundred  thousand. 

"  You  have  often  heard  that  the  missionaries  of  Madura  partake 
of  neither  meat,  fish,  nor  eggs;  that  they  never  drink  wine,  or 
other  similar  beverages;  that  they  dwell  in  wretched  thatched 
huts,  without  bed,  chair,  or  any  species  of  furniture;  that  they 
have  neither  table,  table-cloth,  knife,  fork,  nor  spoon.  This  may 
seem  hard,  but  believe  me,  my  dear  Father,  that  these  are  not 
the  greatest  difficulties  we  have  to  encounter;  for  I  assuro  you, 
in  all  sincerity,  that  in  the  twelve  years  that  1  have  led  this  sort 
of  life,  it  has  not  cost  me  a  single  thought." 

That  which  caused  them  the  greatest  grief,  was  the 
barrier  created  between  them  by  the  difference  of  caste  to 
which  each  one  had  devoted  himself.  The  Saniassi  mis- 
sionary, who  was  of  the  highest  class,  had  to  aiFect  the 
greatest  contempt  for  his  brother  missionary,  who  was  de- 
voted to  the  salvation  of  the  Pariahs;  and  the  latter  Avas 
constrained  to  assume  the  most  humble  attitude,  and  re- 


GENERALSHIP  OP  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.    57 

speotfully  retire  whenever  he  found  himself  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  great  Saniassi.  The  one  partook  only  of  rice, 
specially  prepared  for  him  by  the  Brahmins ;  the  other 
was  content  to  subsist  upon  viands  which  were  frequently 
putrid,  and  with  which  he  was  supplied  by  the  indigent 
Pariahs,  whose  humble  gourou  he  was. 

In  China,  the  Jesuits  were  astronomers,  physicians, 
geographers,  and  mathematicians;  in  Madura  and  Mala- 
bar, they  were  saniassis,  philosophers,  poets,  or  gourous  of 
the  Pariahs  ;  in  the  two  Americas,  they  were  agricultur- 
ists, artisans,  artists,  and  legislators.  The  republic  of 
Paraguay,  which  consisted  of  savages  in  former  times, 
strangers  to  each  other,  now  united  and  civilized  by  the 
missionaries,  had  attained  a  high  degree  of  prosperity. 
The  number  of  cities,  towns,  and  villages  had  considerably 
increased,  and  the  pioneers  of  this  marvellous  civilization 
were  ever  ready  still  further  to  prosecute  their  search  for 
other  wandering  tribes,  which  they  discovered,  too  fre- 
quently, only  after  long,  fatiguing,  and  perilous  journeys. 

Father  Cyprian  Baraze  met  his  death  in  this  dangerous 
ministry.  On  the  IGth  of  September,  1702,  the  apostle 
entered  upon  an  eternity  of  bliss  through  the  portals  of 
mart3^rdom,  alter  having  preached  the  Gospel  for  twenty - 
seven  years,  during  which  period  he  had  converted  from 
idolatry  a  multitude  of  souls,  and  prepared  for  civiliza- 
tion some  of  the  most  savage  tribes.  Shortly  after  his  de- 
cease, Father  Nyel,  to  whom  was  confided  the  direction 
of  the  Reductions  which  the  departed  Father  had  founded, 
thus  wrote  to  Father  Dez  : 

"  Our  Fathers,  to  the  number  of  thirty,  have  established  some 
fifteen  or  sixteen  towns,  which  are  all  well  laid  out.  To  each 
family  is  allotted  a  portion  of  land,  which  they  have  to  cultivate. 
There  are  also  common  lands,  which  are  set  aside  for  the  support 
of  the  Church  and  the  hospital.  At  the  beginning  of  each  year, 
judges  and  magistrates  are  chosen.  Every  crime  has  its  punish- 
42* 


58  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ment.  Two  of  our  Fathers  reside  in  each  town.  The}- are  ta*eated 
with  great  respect,  and  they,  on  their  part,  do  not  spare  them- 
selves. Nothing;  is  more  beautiful  than  the  relio-ious  ceremonies. 
Each  church,  neatly  constructed,  is  provided  with  music.  All  our 
natives  are  enchanted  with  them.  They  have  themselves  con- 
tributed simple  works  of  painting  and  sculpture,  which,  joined  to 
the  alms  of  a  few  pious  individuals,  enable  us  to  adorn  becomingly 
these  temples,  the  admiration  of  our  good  neophytes.  To  meet  the 
difficulty  arising  from  the  diversity  of  languages  among  these  In- 
fidels, the  simplest  and  most  generally  known  has  been  selected, 
and  forms  the  general  language  of  the  congregated  tribes,  who  are, 
of  necessity,  compelled  to  learn  it.  A  grammar  has  been  prepared, 
and  is  in  use  in  the  schools.  The  Superior  of  the  mission  has  se- 
lected for  his  residence  the  most  centrally  situated  town.  It  is 
there  that  the  library  and  general  dispensary  are  situated.  It  is 
likewise  the  place  of  retreat  for  the  missionaries  themselves." 

In  1697,  the  Jesuits  entered  California.  They  were  al- 
ready established  in  Guiana  and  the  Carribbee  Islands, 
where  their  lives  were  shortened  by  the  severity  of  the 
climate ;  but  others  were  ever  ready  to  succeed  their 
brethren,  their  "jreat  ambition  bein2;to  seek  those  danrrerous 
parts,  where  they  were  sure  to  die  for  the  greater  glory  of 
God,  either  by  the  weapons  or  poison  of  the  savages,  or  by 
the  diseases  peculiar  to  tropical  climates,  which  prove  so 
fatal  to  Europeans. 

In  New  France,  where  the  missionaries  of  the  society 
accomplished  marvels  of  civilization,  and  where  the  Reduc- 
tions called  to  mind  those  which  were  admired  in  Paraguay, 
the  neophytes  had  constant  cause  to  dread  the  invasion  of 
the  Iroquois,  whose  savage  natures  could  not  be  brought 
into  subjugation  by  their  missionaries;  but  what  they 
dreaded  still  more  were  the  proximity  of  New  England 
and  its  Puritanism,  By  their  supplies  of  intoxicating 
liquors,  the  English  had  become  friendly  with  the  Iroquois, 
whom  they  incessantly  excited  against  the  French  colony, 
and,  above  all,  against  the  religion  of  the  Jesuits.     They 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THYRSUS  GONZALES  DE  SANTALLA.    59 

reiterated  all  their  calumnies  against  the  missionaries,  in 
hopes,  thereby,  to  destroy  their  influence  over  the  neophytes, 
and  to  sever  the  Indians  from  the  colony  and  from  obedience 
to  the  Governor;  but  the  neophytes  remained  faithful  to  the 
religion  and  the  government  w^hich  they  had  been  taught  by 
the  Jesuits  to  love. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  1705,  the  Father-General, 
Thyrsus  Gonzales  de  Santalla,  departed  this  life,  and  Fa- 
ther Michael  Angelo  Tamburini,  whom  he  had  appointed 
Vicar-General,  convoked  the  Congregation  for  the  17th 
of  January,  1706. 


60  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 


^tiuralsln^  of  latljcr  picljacl  ^ngclo  (Tiimburiiu, 

FOURTEENTH  GENERAL. 
IT'O  G  — 1730. 

I. 

Born  at  Modena,  on  the  27th  of  September,  1648, 
Father  Tamburini  was,  consequently,  above  fifty  years  of 
age  when  called  to  the  government  of  the  society.  He  had 
filled  all  the  offices  of  the  Institute,  and  had  earned  for 
himself  a  reputation  for  learning,  wisdom,  and  piety,  which 
secured  to  him  sixty-two  votes  on  the  day  of  his  election, 
the  30th  of  January,  1706. 

It  was  a  critical  period  for  the  Order.  This  society  of 
heroes,  which  was  instituted  to  carry  on  the  perpetual 
struggles  of  the  Church  against  the  powers  of  darkness, 
was  attacked  alil^e  by  error  and  truth,  by  vice  and  virtue, 
by  the  friends  and  by  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  of  which 
it  was  the  vano;uard  and  the  bulwark. 

The  learned  men  and  theologians  of  Rome  were  occupied 
in  studying  the  questions  of  Jansenism  and  Gallicanism,  or 
of  the  Malabar  rites  and  the  Chinese  ceremonies.  There  was 
distressing  news  from  the  Celestial  Empire,  which  fore- 
shadowed the  approaching  downfall  of  Christianity  in  that 
vast  region.  The  intrigues  of  the  Jansenists  in  France,  and 
throughout  entire  Europe,  foreboded  nothing  less  than  a 
violent  blow,  a  terrible  shock  for  the  future. 

On  the  29th  of  June,  1706,  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  Legate 
of  the  Holy  See,  was  received  by  the   Emperor  of  China, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL   ANGELO  TAMIJURINI.       61 

to  wliom  he  communicated  the  object  of  his  mission.  Kan""- 
Hi  personally  exphiined  to  tlie  Legate,  as  he  had  already 
done  to  the  Fathers,  that  the  Chinese  language  possessed 
no  other  words  to  express  the  idea  of  the  one,  only  God 
but  those  of  Xanti  and  of  Tien^  and  that  the  meaning  at- 
tached to  the  ceremonies  observed  in  memory  of  Confucius 
and  the  ancients  were  simply  human  and  civil.  The  Car- 
dinal insisted  on  the  necessity  of  prohibiting  the  Christians 
from  observing  these  national  customs,  while  the  Jesuits 
continued  to  urge  the  danger  that  would  attend  the  pro- 
posed interdiction.  The  Emperor,  tired  of  these  contro- 
versies, in  which  he  could  see  nought  but  trouble  for  his 
states,  forbade  the  Jesuits  to  teach  any  thing  contrary  to 
the  legal  customs,  and  commanded  the  Legate  to  take  his 
departure.  To  this  injunction  the  Legate  replied  by  an 
edict,  dated  January  25th,  1707,  in  which  he  prohibited 
the  Christians  from  giving  to  God  the  name  of  Xanti  or 
Tieii^  and  from  rendering  to  Confucius  and  the  ancients 
the  accustomed  honors.  To  the  Emperor  this  edict  was  an 
outrage.  He  saw  that  the  Cardinal  doubted  his  sovereiiin 
word,  and,  offended  in  his  character  of  absolute  monarch, 
he  banished  the  Vicar  Apostolic,  and  ordered  that  tha 
Cardinal  Legate  should  be  handed  over  to  the  Portu- 
o;uese,  who  were  his  enemies.  The  latter  confined  him 
in  a  dungeon  in  the  prison  of  Macao. 

Father  Gerbillon,  who  could  not  appease  the  indigna- 
tion and  anger  of  the  Emperor,  died  in  the  midst  of 
these  relijjfious  troubles.  Kani>;-Hi  lost  in  him  a  devoted 
friend;  but  that  friend  had  evinced  such  a  marked  respect 
for  the  Legate,  that  the  monarch  witnessed  his  death  with- 
out the  least  apparent  feeling  of  regret.  However,  he 
became  attached  to  Father  Parrenin,  whom  he  made  his 
constant  companion  when  travelling.  The  Viceroy  of  the 
Indies,  the  Archbishop  of  Goa,  and  the  Bishop  of  Macao 
had  prohibited  Cardinal  de  Tournon  from  exercising  his 


62  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

authority  as  legate,  in  the  Portuguese  colonies,  and  the 
Legate,  in  turn,  excommunicated  the  Bishop  and  the  Cap- 
tain-General of  Macao.  He  expired  in  his  dungeon,  in 
the  latter  city,  on  the  8th  of  June,  1710,  at  the  age  of 
forty-two. 

The  Jesuits  of  Madura  had  appealed  to  the  court  of 
Rome,  and  continued  to  propagate  the  Gospel,  and  to 
plant  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  thanks  to  the  character 
of  Brahmin,  which  they  had  assumed  among  the  different 
castes.  Father  Beschi  was  so  successful,  that  the  Nabob 
of  Trichonopoly,  delighted  with  his  discourses,  and  en- 
chanted by  the  doctrine  promulgated  by  this  great  Sani- 
assi,  requested  him  to  become  his  chief  minister.  Father 
Beschi,  being  convinced  that  the  interests  of  Christianity 
would  be  thereby  greatly  benefited,  accepted  the  dignity, 
and,  henceforth,  thirty  horsemen,  twelve  standard-bearers, 
a  military  band,  the  most  magnificent  elephants,  and  a 
number  of  camels,  composed  the  cortege  of  the  humble 
religious  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Aided  by  this  impos- 
ing appearance,  and  strengthened  in  his  position,  he  daily 
increased  the  number  of  his  converts.  He  even  rraiued  a 
great  number  of  Brahmins,  who,  in  testimony  of  their 
new  faith,  cut  off  their  plaited  hair,  which  reached  to  the 
ground,  and  caused  it  to  be  hung  up  in  the  vestibule  of 
the  church.  But  all  the  honors  lavished  upon  the  Jes- 
uit Saniassi  did  not  shield  them  from  the  displeasure  of 
princes  or  the  anger  of  the  Pagans.  "When  the  mission- 
ary rises  in  the  morning,"  wrote  Father  Bouchet,  "he  can 
not  be  sure  that  he  will  not  have  to  pass  the  night  in  a 
dungeon.  It  is  rare  to  find  one  who  has  altogether  es- 
caped the  horrors  of  a  prison,  and  I  have  known  some 
who  have  been  twice  imprisoned  in  less  than  a  year." 

Clement  XI,  impelled  by  the  entreaties  of  Cardinal  de 
Tournon,  and  desiring  to  put  an  end  to  all  the  divisions 
caused   by   the    toleration   of  the  Jesuits    in    China   and 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO  TAMBURINI.        63 

Malabar,  condemned  some  of  the  practices,  while  he  tol- 
erated others.  The  General  of  the  society,  Michael  An- 
gelo  Tamburini,  went  to  the  Vatican,  accompanied  by  all 
the  professed  members,  who  had  met  in  the  month  of 
November,  1711,  and,  casting  themselves  at  the  leet  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  declared  their  entire  submission  to 
his  decision.  The  Father-General,  speaking  in  behalf  of 
the  whole,  said,  in  conclusion  : 

"  If,  however,  there  should,  in  the  future,  be  found  one 
of  us,  in  whatever  part  of  the  world  it  may  be — which 
God  forbid  should  be  the  case! — who  entertains  other  sen- 
timents than  these,  or  who  shall  speak  in  other  words — 
for  human  prudence  can  not  anticipate  or  prevent  like 
events  amidst  so  many  subjects — the  General  declares, 
assures,  and  protests,  in  the  name  of  the  society,  that  he 
thenceforth  censures  and  repudiates  him,  pronounces  him 
deserving  of  punishment,  and  regards  him  as  a  false  and 
unworthy  son  of  the  Society  of  Jesus." 

The  death  of  Cardinal  de  Tournon  was,  as  yet,  unknown 
at  Rome. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring  in  China,  in  the 
Indies,  and  in  the  capital  of  the  Christian  world,  others, 
of  not  less  serious  import,  happened  in  France.  AVe  are 
aware  that  Pope  Clement  XI  had  condemned  the  respect- 
ful silence — the  last  ingenious  conception  of  the  Jansen- 
ists.  The  nuns  of  Port  Royal  refused  to  submit  to 
the  Bull  which  pronounced  this  condemnation.  The 
clergy  had  received  it ;  the  Parliament  had  recorded  it ; 
but  these  religious,  excited  to  insubordination  by  the  au- 
thor of  the  Reflexions  Morales^  wlic  had  escaped  from 
prison,  persisted  in  ignoring  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
See.  In  1707,  after  more  than  a  year  of  patience  and 
fruitless  exhortation,  Cardinal  de  Noailles  prohibited  them 
from  frequenting  the  sacraments,  and,  at  the  request  of 
Louis  XIV,  Clement  XI,  by  a  Bull,  dated  the  27th  of 


64  HISTORY   OF    THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

March,  1708,  ordered  the  suppression  of  the  convent  of 
Port  Royal  des  Champs,  which  he  designated  as  the  liot^ 
bed  of  heresy.  Quesnel  exclaimed  that  the  Pope  had  blas- 
phemed. The  King's  council  answered  him  by  decreeing 
that  henceforth  there  should  be  but  one  Port  lioyal — that 
of  Paris.  Quesnel  spread  the  report  that  the  Jesuits  had 
guided  the  pen  that  wrote  the  Bull  of  suppression,  as  well 
as  that  which  had  framed  the  decree.  This  latter  could 
be  the  work  of  no  other  than  Pere  Lachaise.  Of  what 
is  a  King's  confessor  not  capable,  especially  when  that 
confessor  is  a  Jesuit! 

Pere  Lachaise  survived  but  a  few  months  this  fresh 
imputation,  which,  however,  could  not  injure  him,  except 
in  the  estimation  of  the  enemies  of  the  Church.  He  died 
on  the  20th  of  January,  1709,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four, 
having,  for  some  time  previously,  lost  his  influence  over 
the  monarch,  whose  affection  for  him,  however,  remained 
unimpaired.  He  had  been  his  confessor  for  thirty  years. 
It  was  he  who  pronounced  the  nuptial  benediction  of  this 
prince  with  Madame  de  Maintenon,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  the  Chevalier  de  Forbin,  de  Mont- 
chevreuil,  and  de  Bontemps.  After  his  death,  the  King 
commissioned  the  Dukes  de  Beauvilliers  and  de  Chevreuse, 
together  with  the  Curate  of  St.  Sulpice,  to  select  for  him 
another  confessor.  They  suggested  Father  Michael  Letel- 
lier,  a  Jesuit,  who  was  accepted,  and  who  entered  upon 
his  functions  February  21st,  of  the  same  year,  1709.  He 
was  Provincial  of  France,  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  was 
far  from  being  the  equal,  by  birth,  of  Pere  Lachaise. 
When  he  appeared  before  the  King,  His  Majesty  inquired 
if  he  was  a  relative  of  the  Chancellor  Michael  Letellier. 

"I,  Sire,"  quickly  responded  the  religious,  "a  relative 
of  the  Letelliers  !  Nothing  of  the  sort.  I  am  a  poor 
peasant,  the  son  of  a  farmer  of  la  Basse  NQrinandie.'^ 

This  blunt  declaration  was  like  a  thunder-clap    to    the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL  ANUELO  TAMBURINI.        G5 

courtiers.      Not  one  among  thcui  could  conceive  why  he 
had  not  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  origin   of  this 
Jesuit  before  presenting  him  to  the  monarch,  who  would 
have  to  kneel  before  him.      This  caused  St.  Simon  to  say 
that  Father  Letellier  was  "from  the  dregs  of  the  people, 
and  made  no  secret  of  it."     This  was  the  real  motive  for 
the   opposition    manifested  against   this   Jesuit,  from   his 
first  appearance  at  the  court.     No  one  ever  forgave  him 
for  revealing,  with  so  much  simplicity,  his  humble  origin. 
And  when,  on  the  29th  of  October,  of  the  same  year,  the 
Captain    of  Police,   d'Argensou,   had    the    nuns    of  Port 
Royal  removed  by  force  from  their  convent,  and  conducted 
to  other   houses,   in  accordance   with    the    decree  of   the 
preceding  year,  it  was  Father  Letellier  whom  they  blamed 
for  this  severity,  overlooking  the  fact  that  the  decree  was 
issued  a  year  before    Father    Letellier   had,  for  the  first 
time,  seen  Louis  XIY.     We  must  admit  that  it  is  very 
easy  to  take  advantage  of   human  weakness.     The  Jan- 
senists  were  aware   of  this,  and  acted  accordingly.     The 
nuns  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs  were  declared  so  many 
martyrs — victims  of  the  tyranny  and  power  of  the  Jesuits. 
How  many  miracles,  prepared  beforehand,  might  then  be 
witnessed  in   the  cemetery  of  the   deserted   abbey !    how 
many  pilgrimages  to  the  forsaken  cells  !     What   numer- 
ous ridiculous  scenes  imagined  and  enacted,  with  a  view 
to  excite  and  irritate  the  public  mind  !      The  King  com- 
prehended  all    this  full  well,  and  would    not  tolerate  it. 
He  commanded  that  all  the   buildings  should  be  demol- 
ished.    This  decree  was  issued  on   the   12th   of  January, 
1710.     The  Jansenists  set  no  bounds  to  their  exaspera- 
tion.    The  episcopacy  became  alarmed  at  its  under-hand 
dealings,   and    the    Bishops    of    La    Rochelle  and  LuQon 
condemned  the  Rejiexions  Morales. 

In  1G95,  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  at  that  time  Bishop  of 
Chalons,  had  approved  this  work,  for  the  simple  reason 
43 


66  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

that  the  first  edition  was  published  with  the  consent  of 
his  predecessor,  Felix  Vialard.  Antoine  de  Noailles  had 
not  troubled  himself  about  the  discrepancy  in  these 
editions.  The  first,  which  was  all  but  harmless,  was  only 
a  small  treatise  of  a  few  pages,  while  the  third  was  a  work 
in  four  volumes,  containing  all  the  doctrines  of  Jansenius. 
Antoine  de  Noailles  had  unconsciously  approved  the  con- 
temning of  all  spiritual  and  temporal  authority,  and  the 
exciting  to  revolt  against  the  same.  Having  become 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  Cardinal,  he  learned  the  con- 
demnation of  the  book,  which  was  issued  with  his  appro- 
bation, and  loudly  complained  of  it.  The  question  was 
submitted  to  the  court  of  Rome  by  the  clergy  of  France, 
and,  in  order  that  it  might  be  fairly  represented,  the  bish- 
ops requested  Father  Letellier  to  draw  up  a  statement  of 
the  case,  which  they  would  forward  independently  to  the 
Sovereign  Pontifi".  Father  Letellier  acceded  to  this  re- 
quest, but  a  letter,  concerning  this  understanding  between 
the  bishops  and  the  King's  Confessor,  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Jansenists,  and  thenceforth  it  was  the  whole  Society 
of  Jesus  that  governed  the  French  episcopacy,  through 
the  medium  of  Father  Letellier.  Minds  became  excited; 
the  discussions  grew  warm.  Cardinal  de  Noailles  took 
off'ense  at  the  appeal  made  to  the  Pope  regarding  the  Re- 
Jiexions  Morales^  and  demanded  from  Louis  XIV  satisfac- 
tion, which  was  refused.  "  The  Cardinal  sees  only  the 
Jesuits  in  this  matter,"  exclaimed  Fenelon,  "so  that  he 
may  arouse  the  world  against  them,  by  designating  them  as 
his  persecutors.  Such  is  ever  the  nature  of  party  spirit. 
To  believe  him,  the  Jesuits  are  capable  of  every  thing. 
Were  it  not  for  them,  the  phantom  of  an  imaginary  heresy 
would  instantly  vanish.  It  is  they  who  write  all  the  episco- 
pal decrees,  and  even  the  constitutions  of  the  Holy  See. 
\Vhat  can  be  more  absurd,  and  more  unworthy  of  serious 
attention,  than  such  declamatory  assertions?" 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL   ANGELO  TAMBURINI.      67 

The  CarcHnal,  finding  that  the  King  remained  inflexible, 
and  that  he  in  nowise  yielded  to  his  entreaties,  hurled  an 
interdict  against  the  entire  body  of  the  Jesuits  in  his  dio- 
cese, excepting  only  the  confessors  of  the  royal  family. 
Of  this  Louis  XIV  complained.  The  Cardinal  replied 
that  he  was  persecuted  by  the  Jesuits.  Madame  de  Main- 
tenon  thus  addressed  him: 

"You  treat  the  affair  of  the  Jesuits  as  a  spiritual  question,  and 
His  Majesty  regards  it  as  a  personal  matter — a  piece  of  private 
revenge.  You  say  that  the  Jesuits  are  not  fit  to  be  confessors, 
and  yet  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  have  become  so  all  at 
once." 

On  the  20th  of  August,  1711,  the  Cardinal  thus  wrote 
to  Madame  de  Maintenon : 

"  I  give  fresh  powers  to  Father  Letellier,  although  it  is  he  who  ia 
lea^t  worthy  of  them." 

It  was  in  order  to  punish  Father  Letellier  for  his  inter- 
ference in  the  affair  of  the  Reflexions  Morales  that  the  body 
of  Jesuits  were  interdicted,  and  he,  the  only  guilty  one, 
was  excepted  from  this  measure,  in  order  to  avoid  dis- 
pleasing the  King!  The  full  extent  of  such  an  incon- 
sistency could  not  escape  the  meanest  capacity. 

In  the  month  of  June,  1712,  Fenelon  thus  wrote  to 
Louis  XIV : 

"Nothing  is  more  injurious  to  a  religious  society  than  to  accuse 
it,  before  the  entire  Christian  world,  of  entertaining  erroneous 
doctrines,  of  being  guilty  of  irregularities  with  regard  to  bishops, 
and  of  desiring  to  become  their  superiors  and  judges.  The  more 
serious  the  accusation,  the  clearer  should  be  the  proof.  It  is,  then, 
necessary  that  the  Cardinal  prove  all  the  allegations,  or  that  be 
acknowledge  himself  as  a  notorious  calumniator.  If  be  persist 
in  a  continuance  of  these  indefinite  complaints  and  invectives,  he 
will  only  do  that  which  is  the  ordinary  course  of  all  the  authors 
of  defamatory  libels.     There  remains  to  him  no  means  of  escape ; 


68  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

it  is  incumbent  upon  him  to  produce  proofs,  so  that  a  lasting 
shame  may  attach  to  the  Jesuits,  or  to  himself.  But,  if  he  has  no 
legal  proof,  he  must  repair  the  calumny  by  retracting  it  as  etFect- 
ually  as  he  has  promulgated  it.  G-od,  whose  truth  he  has  out- 
raged; the  Church,  which  he  has  scandalized;  his  conscience,  the 
voice  of  whicli  he  has  stifled,  in  order  to  gratify  his  resentment; 
his  very  dignity,  which  he  has  abused,  in  order  to  sully  the  fair 
fame  of  innocent  men — all  these  call  for  this  humiliating  repara- 
tion." 

The  Assembly  at  Rome,  charged  to  inquire  into  Ques- 
nel's  work,  which  was  approved  by  Cardinal  de  Noailles, 
had,  at  length,  concluded  its  labors,  Bossuet,  on  the  first 
appearance  of  the  book,  had  discovered  in  it  one  hundred 
and  twenty  erroneous  propositions.  The  Roman  tribunal 
condemned  only  one  hundred  and  one, and,  by  the  celebrated 
Bull,  Umgenitus,  issued  at  Rome,  on  the  8th  of  September, 

1713,  the  Holy  See  condemned  and  reproved  the  Reflex- 
ions Morales  as  containing  several  heresies,  and,  among 
others,  all  those  of  Jansenius.     On  the  23d  of 'January, 

1714,  the  Assembly  of  the  French  Clergy  accepted  the  Bull, 
Uhigenitiis,  and,  on  the  15th  of  February,  the  Parliament 
enrolled  it.  The  Cardinal,  being  unable  to  retreat,  con- 
demned the  Reflexions  3Iorales;  but,  by  an  unhappy  in- 
consistency, he  forbade,  at  the  same  time,  the  acceptance 
of  the  Bull.  This  Bull,  which  was  addressed  to  all  the 
bishops  of  France,  was  accepted  sincerely  and  uncondition- 
ally by  one  hundred  and  eight  prelates.  Thirteen  pro- 
posed certain  modifications.  One  only — Labroue,  Bishop 
of  Mirepoix — refused  to  condemn  the  doctrine  of  Quesnel. 
This  was  a  blow  for  the  Jansenists,  who  avenged  them- 
selves by  calumny,  while  awaiting  a  better  opportunity 
of  showing  their  resentment.  Such  an  occasion  soon 
ofi"ered.  Louis  XIV  died  on  the  1st  of  September,  1715, 
attended,  in  his  last  moments,  by  Father  Letellier.  His 
successor  was  a  minor,  and  the  regency  was  left  to  the 
Duke  of  Orleans. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO  TAMBURINI.        C9 

IL 

The  Jansenists  prided  themselves  upon  their  austerity, 
and  charged  the  Jesuits  with  lax  morals.  This  had  not 
prevented  them,  however,  from  lauding,  for  some  time  be- 
fore, the  prince  who  was  to  govern  the  kingdom  on  the 
demise  of  the  monarch.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  made  no 
secret  of  the  deirradins;  vices  to  which  he  abandoned  him- 
self,  without  shame  or  remorse.  The  Jansenists  depended 
upon  his  vicious  habits  and  inclinations  for  the  success  of 
their  cause,  and  avowed  themselves  his  friends  and  par- 
tisans. This  course,  judiciously  pursued,  made  them  mas- 
ters of  the  field,  soon  after  the  death  of  the  great  King. 

Louis  XIV  had  bequeathed  his  heart  to  the  parent  house 
of  the  Jesuits.  Philip  of  Orleans  did  not  dispute  this 
barren  inheritance  ;  but  the  Jansenists  required  a  security. 
They  demanded  a  victim.  Philip  sacrificed  Father  Letel- 
lier,  whom  he  banished.  The  Confessor  of  Louis  XIV 
was  sent  to  Amiens;  for,  said  they,  he  had  filled  the  pris- 
ons with  Jansenists;  he  had  availed  himself  of  his  secret 
powers,  and  a  multitude  of  innocent  people  languished  in 
fetters,  the  victims  of  his  cruel  tyranny.  With  what  eager- 
ness did  they  not  throw  open  the  dungeons  of  the  Bastile 
and  the  prison  of  Vincennes,  in  order  to  remove  the  chains 
of  that  multitude  of  innocents!  They  came  forth  in 
crowds;  they  were  counted;  there  were  six,  of  whom  two 
only  had  been  arrested  during  the  period  which  they 
termed  the  reign  of  Father  Letellier  ! 

On  the  20th  of  November,  two  months  after  the  death 
of  the  King,  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  feeling  convinced  that 
the  Jesuits  would  not  prove  very  formidable  for  the  future, 
partially  annulled  the  interdict  which  he  had  issued  against 
them,  and  restored  these  faculties  to  twelve  among  them, 
who,  probably,  had  become  good  confessors  through  their 
temporary  suspension. 
43* 


70  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

The  University,  also  desirous  of  profiting  by  the  King's 
death,  requested  the  regent  to  adopt  measures  for  dimin- 
ishino-  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  in  matters  of  education, 
on  account  of  the  serious  injury  they  caused  to  the  Uni- 
versity. To  this  Philip  would  not  consent,  and  resolutely 
replied : 

"As  regards  the  colleges  of  the  Jesuits,  my  will  is  that 
no  change  shall  be  made." 

"But,"  added  the  deputies,  "we  only  desire  a  decree, 
prohibiting  such  as  may  have  made  their  studies  with  the 
Jesuits  from  receiving  academical  degrees." 

"Never,"  rejoined  the  regent,  "so  long  as  I  govern 
France,  will  I  permit  the  college  of  my  uncle  to  undergo 
any  change  whatever." 

A  few  days  after  this,  he  wrote  to  Father  de  Trevoux, 
acquainting  him  with  his  friendly  dispositions  as  regarded 
the  College  of  Louis  le  Grand,  and  assuring  him  of  the 
futility  of  the  steps  taken  by  the  University.  But  that 
which  the  Jansenists  lost  on  this  point,  they  gained  in 
others.  They  succeeded  in  having  Cardinal  de  Noailles 
nominated  President  of  the  Council,  and  they  used  their 
advantage.  The  Jesuits  had  always  devoted  themselves 
to  the  religious  instruction  of  the  soldiers;  their  enemies 
construed  this  into  a  crime.  "  They  assembled  the  mili- 
tary in  order  to  obtain  control  over  them,"  said  the  Jan- 
senists, "and  thus,  at  one  blow,  to  be  able  to  overthrow 
the  government,  which  might  be  displeasing  to  them." 
On  the  19th  of  July,  1716,  these  assemblages  of  the  mili- 
tary were  forbidden,  and  the  Jesuits  desisted  from  their 
labors  without  remonstrance.  This  was  not  the  object  of 
their  adversaries,  who  desired  to  raise  an  outcry.  They  in- 
sinuated that  this  silent  submission  of  the  Fathers  was 
nothing  but  a  sham. 

Marshal  de  Villars.,  Minister  of  War,  was  a  pupil  of  the 
Jesuits,  as  were  all  the  great  men  of  that  period.     On 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO  TAMBURTNI.        71 

hearing  of  these  calumnies,  he  indignantly  exclaimed,  in 
Council : 

"  Who  are  they  who  are  so  rash  as  to  advance  such  a 
palpable  falsehood  ?  I  hold  in  my  hands  the  answers  of 
the  chief  officers  and  commandants  of  posts.  All  bear  wit- 
ness that  the  King's  orders  are  strictly  obeyed.  For  my 
part,  gentlemen,  I  declare,  that,  as  long  as  I  have  com- 
manded, I  never  saw  soldiers  more  active  or  more  prompt 
in  the  execution  of  orders,  or  more  brave,  than  those  who 
belonged  to  the  Congregations  which  are  to-day  so  loudly 
decried !  " 

The  Marshal  had  himself  been  a  member  of  these  Con 
gregations,  hence  he  could  speak  of  them  from  experience. 

Cardinal  de  Noailles  appeared  unable  longer  to  exist 
otherwise  than  under  the  control  of  the  Jansenist  faction. 
Father  Louis  de  la  Ferte,  son  of  the  Marshal,  at  the  re- 
quest of  Cardinal  de  Rohan,  the  Grand  Almoner,  was  to 
preach  at  the  Tuilleries  during  the  advent  of  1716.  Car- 
dinal de  Noailles  privately  proposed  to  the  regent  to  ap- 
point another  preacher.  Philip  declined  to  do  so.  Father 
de  la  Ferte,  being  informed  of  what  had  taken  place,  re- 
signed in  favor  of  the  preacher  suggested  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  but  the  Prince  de  llohan,  brother  of  the 
Grand  Almoner,  wrote  to  him,  on  the  31st  of  October,  as 
follows  : 

"The  Duke  of  Orleans  has  commanded  me  to  convey  to  you  the 
order  to  preach  befoi'e  the  King  to-morrow — an  order  reiterated  in 
the  presence  of,  and  supported  by,  the  Duchess  de  Ventadour — so 
that  no  private  reasons  can  longer  hold  good  against  the  respect 
which  you  owe  to  the  King." 

Father  de  la  Ferte  could  not  but  obey  such  a  command. 

On  the  following  day,  November  1st,  he  preached  before  the 

court,  and  afterward  conjured  the  regent  to  dispense  him 

•from  the  obligation  of  again  ascending  the  pulpit  of  the 

Tuilleries,  so  as  to  avoid  a  lamentable  conflict  between  the 


72  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Grand  Almoner  and  the  Arclibishop  of  Paris.  The  regent 
fully  appreciated  the  delicate  position  of  the  humble  Jes- 
uit, and  acceded  to  his  request.  But  Cardinal  de  Noailles 
wished  to  make  the  regent  sensible  of  his  dissatisfaction 
at  Father  de  la  Ferte's  having  been  commanded  to  preach 
the  first  sermon  before  the  court,  and,  accordingly,  sus- 
pended all  the  Jesuits  of  Paris,  and,  nominally,  Louis  de  la 
Ferte. 

He  even  conceived  the  idea  of  serving  this  notice  by  the 
hands  of  a  civil  officer!  Nay,  more:  public  criers  were 
ordered  to  go  through  the  streets  of  the  city,  to  announce 
the  great  news  to  the  Parisians,  and  to  make  known  to 
one  and  all  that  the  Jesuits  had  been  interdicted  by  sen- 
tence of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris.  The  Jansenists  were 
badly  off  for  a  scandal.  They  sought  to  prevent  the  Jes- 
uits from  teaching.  For  this,  it  was  necessary  to  shake  the 
confidence  of  the  heads  of  families,  and  to  them  any  means 
were  justifiable  to  attain  this  end.  The  Bishops  of  Cha- 
lons, of  Metz,  Verdun,  Laon,  and  3Iontpellier,  importuned 
by  the  Jansenists,  followed  the  example  of  Cardinal  de 
Noailles,  whose  views  they  seconded,  and  thus  the  Jes- 
uits found  themselves  interdicted  in  these  dioceses  without 
knowing  upon  what  ground. 

On  the  11th  of  May  of  that  year,  1716,  there  took 
flight  to  the  regions  of  bliss  one  of  the  most  humble  and 
noblest  ornaments  of  the  Society  of  Jesus — St.  Francis 
Hieronymo,  called,  in  Italy,  Francisco  di  Girolamo — there 
to  receive  the  well-merited  reward  of  a  holy  and  labo- 
rious life. 

It  did  not  suffice  that  the  holy  ministry  had  been 
closed  to  the  apostles  of  the  Society  of  Jesus;  it  was  also 
necessary  to  destroy  their  reputation  by  the  most  hideous 
calumnies.  In  this,  they  had  but  to  tread  in  the  steps  of 
Protestantism  ;  and  faithfully  did  Jansenism  follow  in  its 
path. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL   ANGELO  TAMBURINI.       73 

In  the  course  of  the  year  171 G,  two  men  visited  T?rest, 
for  the  alleged  purpose  of  laying-  claim  to  a  sum  of  two 
millions,  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  them  by  one  of 
their  relations,  x\mbrose  Guis,  w^ho  had  died  in  that  city, 
fifteen  years  before.  The  two  heirs  were  from  Marseilles — 
the  one,  Ilonore  Guerin,  was  a  suspended  priest;  the 
other,  Esprit  Berengier,  was  a  poor  mechanic.  Unfortu- 
nately for  them,  no  one  at  Brest  had  ever  heard  tell  of 
such  an  immense  fortune;  no  one  remembered  such  a  per- 
son as  Ambrose  Guis.  The  authorities  of  the  city  were 
equally  uninformed.  The  heirs  were  compelled  to  return 
as  they  came,  without  an  inheritance. 

This  claim  appeared  to  have  been  quite  forgotten,  when, 
all  at  once,  a  report  became  current  at  Brest,  in  1718, 
that  the  Jesuits  of  the  Marine  College  were  in  a  better 
position  than  any  one  else  to  furnish  information  respect- 
ing Ambrose  Guis  and  his  two  millions.  The  case  was  a 
clear  one.  Ambrose  had  landed  at  Brest,  in  ill  health,  in 
1701.  The  Jesuits  had  cunningly  enticed  him  to  their 
college,  being  mindful  of  his  two  millions.  They  subse- 
quently had  put  an  end  to  the  sick  man,  and  came  to  an 
understanding  with  the  Abbe.  Rognant,  rector  of  the  parish 
of  St.  Louis,  who,  in  like  manner,  arranged  with  the  at- 
tendants of  the  hospital.  Every  thing  was  settled.  The 
Abbe  Rognant  had  caused  the  corpse  to  be  removed,  and 
interred  in  the  burial-ground  of  the  hospital. 

There  was  wanting  in  this  fable  only  a  little  probability, 
but  no  one  examined  closely  enough  to  discover  this. 
The  report  had  gone  abroad,  and  was  repeated  with  more 
or  less  accuracy.  It  went  the  round  of  the  city,  grieving 
some,  astonishing  others,  and  was  rejected  only  by  the  few. 
Thus,  at  length,  the  news  reached  the  college,  and  the 
Jesuits,  who  had  often  had  occasion  to  test  the  extent  of 
human  credulity,  felt  the  necessity  of  proving  the  falsity 
of  this  infamous  accusation.     The  Governor  of  the  city 


74  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

requested  the  President  of  the  Parliament  of  Aix  to  take 
steps,  in  his  official  character,  to  sift  the  matter.  The 
result  was,  the  family  of  Ambrose  Guis  declared  that  in- 
digence had  compelled  the  old  man  to  embark  for  Ali- 
cant,  and  that  they  had  since  been  informed  that  he  had 
been  very  unfortunate  there.  The  President  next  wrote 
to  the  latter  place.  The  answer  which  he  received  con- 
tained the  following  extract  from  the  official  acts : 

"  Ambrose  Guis,  a  Frenchman  by  birth.  On  Friday,  the  6th  of 
November,  1665,  the  above  named  was  interred  in  this  church,  for 
the  love  of  God,  all  the  clergy  assisting,  in  accordance  with  the 
ordinance  and  decree  of  the  Grand  Vicar  of  this  city  of  Alicant, 
and  of  its  territory." 

The  copy  of  this  official  document  was  certified  as  au- 
thentic by  three  notaries  and  by  the  French  Consul. 

When  the  truth  was  made  public,  by  order  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, every  one  saw  and  felt  that  there  had  been  a  want 
of  reflection,  and  admitted  that,  in  fact,  a  fabricated  tale 
had  been  accredited — a  tale  which  was  as  absurd  as  it  was 
ludicrous  and  malicious.  However,  no  one  undertook  to  be 
less  credulous,  or  more  reflective  for  the  future.  We  are 
ever  disposed  to  ridicule  popular  credulity,  but  when  the 
occasion  requires,  we  are,  alas,  too  ready  to  contribute  our 
share. 

The  Jesuits  knew  that  they  had  been  infamously  calum- 
niated. Thev  had  been  interdicted  in  some  of  the  dio- 
ceses  of  the  kingdom,  but  they  w^ere,  every- where,  and  at 
all  times,  the  worthy  sons  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola  ;  in 
all  places,  and  at  all  times,  they  proved  that  they  were 
anijnat-ed  by  his  spirit. 

In  1720,  Marseilles  was  visited  by  the  plague,  which 
spread  consternation  throughout  the  whole  of  France. 
The  Bishop  of  Marseilles,  who  had  belonged  to  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus,  had  there  learned  all  the  resources  of 
charity,  and  showed  himself  a  true  hero  during  the  contin- 


GENERALSllir   OF    MICHAEL  ANGELO   TAMBUUINI.       75 

uaiice  of  that  dreadful  visitation.  But  he  was  not  the  only 
one,  for  there  were  Jesuits  stationed  at  Mart>eil]es.  This 
terrible  scourge  carried  off  a  thousand  victims  a  day. 
Such  of  the  municipal  officers  as  had  not  souj^ht  safety  in 
flight,  were  seized  with  the  malady.  Only  two  remained  to 
administer  the  affairs  of  the  city,  and  they  would  have  been 
totally  inadequate  to  the  task,  had  not  Father  Milley  come 
to  their  assistance.  All  the  Jesuits  hastened  to  the  relief 
of  the  plague-stricken — all  were  grand  in  their  self-de- 
nial, courage,  devotedness,  and  sublime  charity.  All  fell, 
like  heroes,  at  the  side  of  the  unfortunate  and  suffering 
sick,  whom  they  tended,  or  the  dying,  whom  they  prepared 
for  eternity.  Eighteen  of  the  Fathers  died.  Father 
Claude  Francis  3Iilley  was  among  them.  The  sole  sur- 
vivor was  the  venerable  Father  John  Peter  Levert,  who 
had  nursed  the  plague-stricken  people  in  the  missions  of 
the  East,  and  who,  at  this  time,  was  eighty  years  of 
age.  He  had  lost  all  his  fellow-laborers,  and  was  the 
only  one  left  in  the  house  of  his  Order  ;  but  his  courage 
surpassed  his  grief,  his  charity  had  retained  all  its  vigor. 
He  desired,  if  it  were  possible,  to  replace  those  who  had 
departed ;  he  would,  as  it  were,  multiply  himself,  and  he 
accomplished  wonders.  As  soon  as  the  malady  had  dis- 
appeared, the  venerable  apostle  succumbed  to  his  super- 
human exertions,  and  breathed  his  last  in  the  arms  of 
the  heroic  Bishop  whose  labors  and  dangers  he  had  so 
zealously  shared.  The  scourge  had  spread  throughout 
the  whole  of  Provence.  The  registers  of  Marseilles,  of 
Aix,  Aries,  Avignon,  and  of  Toulon,  contain  the  names 
of  thirty-eight  Jesuits  who  fell  victims  to  their  charity.* 

*  From  Father  Pasquier  Brouet,  one  of  the  first  companions  of  St. 
Ignatius,  who  died  at  Paris,  a  victim  of  his  charity,  in  15G2,  until 
the  plague  of  Marseilles,  all  the  regions  of  the  earth  have  beheld 
the  members  of  the  society  confront  and  receive  their  death-blow  in 
the  midst  of  the  sick  and  dying.     In  the  catalogue  of  Father  Al- 


76  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS 

It  was  thus  that  they  met  the  calumnies  and  persecuticua 
of  which  they  were  the  subjects. 

III. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  1715,  a  Bull  of  Clement  XI 
formally  prohibited  the  Jesuits  from  ever  again  per- 
mitting the  practice  of  the  national  customs  which  they 
had  hitherto  tolerated  in  the  Chinese  Empire;  and  the 
same  Bull  exacted  from  them  a  solemn  declaration,  to 
which  they  all,  without  exception,  subscribed,  although, 
by  so  doing,  they  felt  that  they  were  signing  the  destruc- 
tion of  Christianity  in  a  state  which  promised  so  much 
in  the  future.  However,  the  Holy  See,  in  order  to  be  the 
better  informed  on  the  subject,  sent  Ambrose  de  Mezza- 
barba  to  China,  with  the  title  of  Legate  Apostolic,  con- 
fiding to  him  the  duty  of  inquiring  into  these  matters, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  render  an  exact  account  to  the  Roman 
court.  To  request  admission  to  the  Imperial  City  for 
the  representative  of  the  Sovereign  Pontifi',  was  to  run  the 
risk  of  incurring  the  Emperor's  extreme  displeasure. 
Kang-Hi  had  not  forgotten  Cardinal  de  Tournon. 

Father  Laureati,  Visitor  of  China,  obtained  from  the 
Mandarins  that  which  no  one  dared  solicit  from  the  Em- 
peror, and  thus  the  Legate  gained  admission  into  the 
capital.  The  Emperor  was  informed  of  the  fact,  and 
caused  the  Father  and  the  Mandarins  who  had  favored  the 
Legate  to  be  imprisoned.      The  Jesuits  were  desirous  of 

gamba,  continued  by  Nadasi,  under  the  title  of  Heron  et  Victimes  de 
la  Charite,  from  the  year  1556  to  the  year  1G57,  we  find  that  eleven 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  Fathers  or  Brothers  fell  victims  to  their 
charity.  For  the  following  years  statistics  are  wanting  ;  but,  from 
the  year  1679  to  the  year  1726,  it  will  be  found  that,  in  this  period 
of  forty-seven  years,  three  hundred  and  thirteen  Jesuits  died  while 
tending  the  sick,  during  the  ])revalence  of  the  plague  ;  and  down  to 
our  own  days,  we  do  not  find  this  holy  zeal  in  the  least  diminished. 
•^J^ote  of  M.  C.  Joly,  Mist.  Soc.  of  Jesus. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO   TAMBURINI.      77 

proving,  to  the  end,  their  respect  for,  and  submission  to, 
the  envoy  of  the  Holy  See.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
Legate  should  have  an  audience  of  the  Emperor.  The 
Jesuits  alone  were  bold  enough  to  brave  the  anger  of  Ilis 
Majesty,  and  it  was  Father  Joseph  Pereira  who  intro- 
duced Ambrose  Mezzabarba  to  Kang-Hi.  The  displeas- 
ure of  the  Emperor  was  unmistakable,  nor  did  he  attempt 
to  conceal  it.  lie  could  not  conceive  it  possible  that  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  should  give  to  the  national  customs  of 
the  Celestial  Empire  an  interpretation  quite  opposed  to 
the  real  meaning  of  the  Chinese  themselves,  and  he  re- 
fused to  authorize  his  subjects  to  sacrifice  these  customs 
to  their  religion.  The  Legate  proposed  that  he  should 
convey  this  answer  to  the  Pope,  and  then  return  to  the 
empire  with  the  pontifical  decision.  The  prince  agreed 
to  the  proposition  ;  but,  during  the  voyage  of  the  Legate, 
on  the  19th  of  March,  1721,  Clement  XI  departed  this 
life,  and  was  succeeded  by  Benedict  XIII.  The  Empe- 
ror Kang-Hi  died  in  the  following  year,  December  20th. 
The  first  imperial  act  of  his  son,  Yong-Tching,  was  to 
prohibit  Christianity  throughout  the  extent  of  his  empire. 
All  those  Jesuits  whose  learning  sheltered  them  from 
the  imperial  anger,  asked  mercy  for  their  neophytes,  and 
sought  to  avert  this  blow,  the  consequences  of  which  would 
be  the  total  ruin  of  religion,  persecution  and  apostasy  for 
some,  death  for  many,  and  the  triumph  of  the  powers  of 
hell  for  the  future.  But  Yong-Tching  was  inexorable. 
He  at  first  threatened  with  death  those  princes  of  his 
family  who  refused  to  renounce  the  Catholic  faith,  but, 
finally,  spared  their  lives,  stripped  them  of  their  property, 
and  banished  them,  as  he  did  also  some  of  the  grandees  of 
his  court.  The  missionaries  of  various  orders  were  sent 
to  Macao.  The  Jesuits  alone  were  looked  upon  as  too 
learned  to  be  sacrificed.  But  their  ministry  could  no  longer 
be  exercised,  save  in  secret,  except  by  surmounting  ia- 
44 


78  HISTORY    OF    THE    riOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

numerable  difficulties.  Father  Gaubil,  in  a  letter  dated 
October  6th,  1726,  addressing  Father  Maignan,  then  at 
Paris,  relates  their  deplorable  condition,  and  the  good  they 
were  still  in  a  position  to  effect  in  the  midst  of  these  dif- 
ficulties. For  ten  years,  these  holy  missionaries  struggled 
against  the  obstacles  which  were  opposed  to  their  apostol- 
ical labors,  ever  hoping  either  for  concessions  on  the  part 
of  the  Roman  court,  or  for  a  less  hostile  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  Emperor. 

In  France,  a  fresh  storm  had  arisen  against  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  with  regard  to  an  occurrence  of  which  that  so- 
ciety was  totally  ignorant.  In  1721,  the  Oratorian  Lelong 
was  on  the  point  of  death.  The  curate  of  ^t.  Louis  en 
V Isle,  who  knew  him  to  be  one  of  those  opposed  to  the 
Bull,  JJuigenitus,  demanded  his  retractation,  Lelong  re- 
fusing to  comply,  the  curate  declined  to  administer  the 
sacraments  to  him,  and  at  once  the  Jesuits  were  charged 
with  being  the  cause  of  the  refusal. 

In  the  following  year,  1722,  the  Abbe  Boche,  who  had 
also  objected  to  the  Bull,  was  at  the  point  of  death,  at 
Aries.  Father  Savornin,  a  Dominican,  refused  him  abso- 
lution unless  he  retracted.  The  dying  Abbe  was  obsti- 
nate, and  refused  to  submit  to  the  Church  before  going  to 
appear  before  the  tribunal  of  God.  Another  priest  saw 
him,  and  administered  the  sacraments.  The  consequence 
was,  that  he  was  suspended  by  the  Archbishop.  Evidently, 
it  was  the  Jesuits  who  were  in  the  wrong.  From  one  end 
of  France  to  the  other,  there  was  one  cry  of  hatred  and 
reprobation. 

These  two  instances  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  two 
priests  called  forth  a  measure  which  became  almost  gen- 
eral. From  the  sick  was  demanded  a  certificate  of  con- 
fession before  the  last  sacraments  could  be  administered 
to  them,  so  as  to  be  assured  as  to  the  orthodoxy  of  their 
faith  by  that  of  the  priest  who  had  absolved  them.     Once 


t 


GENERALSHIP  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO  TAMBURINI.       79 

more  it  was  the  entire  Society  of  Jesus  that  was  accused 
of  tliis  rigorous  step — that  society  which  impiety  and  im- 
morality, in  league  with  Jansenism,  accused  of  laxity  in 
morals  !  At  first,  the  Jesuits  replied  simply  by  silence. 
It  was  only  a  few  years  subsequently  that  they  defended 
themselves  by  their  writings.  In  1729,  the  death  of 
Cardinal  de  Noailles  at  last  restored  to  the  Fathers  the  free 
exercise  of  the  holy  ministry.  The  first  act  of  Charles 
Vintimille,  his  successor  in  the  See  of  Paris,  was  to  remove 
the  interdict  which  the  Cardinal  had  persisted  in  maintain- 
ing during  fifteen  years ! 

The  Greneral  of  the  society  survived  this  consoling  news 
but  a  few  months.  He  died  on  the  28th  of  February,  1730. 
In  the  same  year.  Cardinal  Corsini  ascended  the  apostolic 
throne,  under  the  title  of  Clement  XII. 


80  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 


6eiuralsl]ig  0f  latljcr  |r;incis  |tct}, 

FIFTEENTH    GENERAL. 
17'30-1'750. 

I. 

Father  Tamburini  died  without  having  named  a  Vicar- 
General.  The  professed  members  at  Rome  appointed  Fa- 
ther Retz  to  fill  that  office  durins;  the  interregnum,  and 
the  latter,  having  assigned  the  17th  of  November,  1730,  for 
the  assembling  of  the  General  Congregation,  was  then 
elected  by  a  unanimous  vote,  his  own  only  excepted,  on  the 
30th  of  the  same  month.  He  was  born  at  Prasjue,  was 
fifty-seven  years  of  age,  and  had  distinguished  himself  in 
all  the  offices  which  he  had  held. 

Jansenism  had  just  lost  its  mainstay,  Cardinal  de  No- 
allies,  who,  without  professing  its  doctrines,  without  even 
conscientiously  approving  them,  had  allowed  himself  to  be 
ruled  by  its  partisans,  and  had  lent  himself  to  their  exac- 
tions with  a  weakness  which  was  most  lamentable  on  ac- 
count of  its  serious  results.  Philip  of  Orleans  no  longer 
governed.  The  King  had  attained  his  majority.  But  Louis 
XV,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  midst  of  a  depraved 
court,  thought  only  of  his  pleasures,  left  the  affairs  of 
state  to  his  ministers,  and  refused  to  trouble  himself  about 
the  religious  questions  which  had  so  agitated  the  preceding 
reign.  Thus  thrown  upon  its  own  resources,  Jansenism 
felt  the  approach  of  its  downfall.  It  endeavored  to  make 
one   more  spasmodic    efiort.     It    caused    miracles    to   be 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER    FRANCIS    RETZ.  81 

wrought  at  the  tomb  of  Paris,  the  Deacon.  It  gave  a 
recipe  to  a  few  adepts,  to  induce  them  to  fall  into  fits  on 
reaching  the  cemetery  of  the  parish  of  St.  Medard.  It 
attracted  the  lower  classes  around  the  convulsed,  and  paid 
most  liberally  to  whomsoever  would  declare  himself  pos- 
sessed of  an  evil  spirit,  and,  after  exhibiting  some  horrible 
contortions  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled  crowd,  would 
attest  his  having  been  miraculously  delivered  from  the  evil 
spirit,  through  the  merits  of  the  holy  Deacon,  Paris. 
Matters  were  even  carried  so  far  as  to  cause  the  Chief  of 
Police  to  order  the  cemetery  to  be  closed,  and  forbid  the 
repetition  of  scenes  as  indecent  as  they  were  ridiculous.* 
While  Jansenism  thus  gave  itself  up  to  the  ridiculous, 
and  affected  a  pious  belief  in  the  miracles  they  so  liberally 
paid  for,  the  school  of  incredulity  came  to  its  aid,  secretly 
deepening  the  fearful  abyss  into  which  it  sought  to  ingulf 
thrones  and  precipitate  the  altars.  This  school,  of  which 
Voltaire  was  the  head,  whose  system  was  the  negation  of 
all  truth,  whose  object  was  the  destruction  of  Catholicity, 
had  reached  its  culminating  point.  To  the  scandalous 
licentiousness  of  the  regency  was  added  that  of  the  court 
of  Louis  XV.  Society  seemed  to  have  lost  all  sense  of 
right.  The  new  philosophy  could  now  force  itself  upon 
France,  and  rely  upon  numerous  adherents.  By  its  writ- 
ings and  correspondence,  it  propagated  its  principles  with 
fearful  rapidity,  and  soon  the  political  and  religious  ideas 
of  independence,  which  the  Protestants  and  Jansenists  had 
so  plentifully  sown  in  all  parts,  were  seen  to  germinate, 
grow  and  develop  themselves  through  the  influence  of 
these  pernicious  doctrines. 

*The  following  lines  were  discovered  on  the  gates  of  the  cemetery 
on  the  day  following,  the  irony  of  which  aroused  contempt  for  these 
pretended  miracles  : 

"  De  par  le  roi,  defense  a  Dieu 
De  faire  des  miracles  en  ce  lieu." 


82  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"  A  party  was  formed,"  said  Dr.  Rankc,  a  Protestant 
writer  *  "  which  founded  its  hatred  of  all  religion  on  a 
system  which  destroyed  all  idea  of  a  God,  and  all  the 
essential  principles  of  authority  and  society.  A  literature 
appeared  which  was  opposed  alike  to  the  Church  and  to 
the  government,  al!urin<i;  minds  to  itself  and  binding;  them 
with  indissoluble  fetters. 

"It  is  evident  that  the  various  tendencies  of  this  period" 
were  in  little  accordance  with  each  other.  The  tendency 
of  the  Reformation  was,  of  its  nature,  monarchical,  which 
can  not  be  said  of  the  philosophical  school,  which  speedily 
became  antagonistic  to  the  state.  The  tendency  of  Jansen- 
ism was  toward  opinions  which  were  indifferent,  if  not 
obnoxious,  alike  to  both.  Notwithstanding  the  diversity 
of  these  ideas  and  sentiments,  all  these  parties  were  united 
in  action.  In  every  country,  at  every  court,  two  parties 
were  formed,  of  which  the  one  souiiht  to  maintain  thin<2;s 
in  their  normal  condition,  and  to  conserve  the  prerogatives 
of  the  Universal  Church. 

"  This  latter  party  was  especially  represented  by  the 
Jesuits,  which  Order  seemed  to  be  the  chief  bulwark  of 
the  ultramontane  principle.  It  was  against  them  that  the 
storm  was  directed." 

It  is  a  Protestant  who  avows  that  "all  these  parties  were 
united  in  action."  The  Jansenists  devoted  to  the  execra- 
tion of  the  world  the  loose  morals  of  the  Jesuits,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  "unite  their  move- 
ments" with  the  Protestants,  with  the  impious  and  tlio 
atheists,  in  order  the  more  surely  to  destroy  all  authority, 
whether  spiritual  or  temporal.  The  Jesuits  were  regarded 
as  "the  bulwark"  of  the  Church  and  of  the  Papacy;  hence 
they  were  the  first  to  be  attacked.  Calvin  initiated  this 
strategy.     He  first  sounded  the  alarm,  and  first  opened  fire 

*  History  of  the  Papacy.     Tome  iii,  pp.  .344,  345.     ( 1848.) 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER    FRANCIS  RETZ.  83 

from  his  batteries  upon  the  society.  His  followers  had 
ever  been  faithful  in  following  his  system  of  persecution; 
but  two  centuries  of  calumnies,  massacres,  pillages,  and 
treachery  have  proved  ineffectual  in  defeating  that  army 
of  heroes.  To  accomplish  this,  fresh  battalions,  new 
weapons  were  needed.  The  evil  one  had  invented  Jan- 
senism, and  now,  better  informed  as  to  its  importance,  he 
reinforced  it  with  the  sect  of  unbelievers.  The  "  three 
tendencies  would  unite  their  action  " — we  shall  soon  see 
the  result  of  this  combination. 

While  the  powers  of  darkness  thus  secretly  maneuvered, 
a  rumor  began  to  spread  in  the  city  of  Toulon.  This  was  in 
1731.  The  Jesuits  were  said  to  be  so  in  league  with  the 
demon,  that  he  did  with  them  what  he  would.  It  was  a  fact 
not  to  be  questioned.  Catharine  la  Cadiere,  a  very  holy 
young  woman,  was  unmistakably  possessed  by  an  evil  spirit, 
through  the  influence  of  Father  John  Baptist  Girard,  Rec- 
tor of  the  Seminary  of  the  Marine,  who  had  cast  a  spell 
upon  her.  It  was  Catharine  who  made  this  statement, 
and,  hence,  it  could  not  be  doubted.  Moreover,  it  was 
very  easy  to  obtain  proofs  of  it,  since  Catharine  demanded 
nothing  better  than  to  exhibit,  gratuitously,  to  the  public 
the  positive  indications  of  her  condition.  She  might  be 
seen  daily. 

The  people,  to  whom  these  exhibitions  were  made,  free 
of  charge,  hastened  to  the  possessed  one,  to  witness,  in 
breathless  excitement,  her  unnatural  contortions,  and  hear 
her  diabolical  talk. 

Catharine  was  attended,  during  these  scenes,  by  her 
brother,  or  by  her  confessor — the  former  a  Jacobin,  the 
latter  a  Carmelite,  named  Nicholas.  Both  were  Jansen- 
ists,  and  we  are  aware  that,  at  that  time,  Jansenism  was 
subject  to  convulsions,  and  in  great  repute. 

The  Bishop  of  Toulon,  La  Tour  du  Pin  Montauban, 
disapproving  the  affair,  would  not  permit  the  exhibitions 


84  HISTORY   OF   THE    SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

of  Catharine,  and  interdicted  both  the  Jacobin  and  the 
Carmelite  who  had  favored  them.  On  the  following  day, 
the  Carmelite  and  Jacobin  presented  themselves  at  the 
episcopal  palace,  and  were  received  by  the  Bishop. 

"My  Lord  Bishop,"  said  they  to  him,  ''you  have  with- 
drawn our  powers," 

"Yes;  because  you  have  caused  your  penitent  and  your 
sister  to  counterfeit  the  actions  of  one  possessed." 

"  My  Lord,  if  we  are  to  be  interdicted,  it  is  only  just  that 
Father  Girard  should  share  the  same  fate.  You  must, 
therefore,  reinstate  us,  or  silence  him." 

"  I  will  do  neither  the  one  nor  the  other." 

"Well,  my  Lord,  we  will  lay  the  matter  before  Parlia- 
ment; we  now  give  you  notice  of  our  intention.  It  is  in 
our  power  to  ruin  Father  Girard,  and  ruin  him  we  will. 
As  for  ourselves,  we  shall  want  for  nothinc: ;  for  we  have 
the  assurance  of  receiving  fifty  thousand  livres  if  we  suc- 
ceed." 

The  Bishop  remained  firm,  and  dismissed  the  two  Jan- 
senists.  The  latter  lost  no  time  in  laying  their  charge 
before  Parliament.  The  investigation  was  searching.  The 
Bishop  furnished,  in  writing,  the  details  which  we  have 
just  related,  and  which  seemed  scarcely  credible;  and  when 
justice  was  fully  informed,  to  the  shame  of  popular  cre- 
dulity, this  is  what  it  discovered. 

Catharine  la  Cadiere  was  accustomed  to  confess  to  Father 
Girard,  when,  all  at  once,  she  declared  that  she  had  been 
favored  with  visions,  ecstasies,  and  revelations.  Father 
Girard,  after  having  duly  investigated  matters,  made  known 
to  his  penitent  that  he  could  no  longer  receive  her  con- 
fessions. He  had  discovered  that  she  had  been  imposing 
upon  him.  Catharine,  wounded  in  her  pride,  and  furious  at 
the  thought  of  being  detected,  conceived  the  idea  of  aveng- 
ing herself,  by  accusing  Father  Girard  of  having  caused  an 
evil  spirit  to  torment  her.     Aided  and  abetted  by  the  Jan- 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  FRANCIS  RETZ.  85 

senists,  she  had  enacted  the  scenes  we  have  just  related, 
of  which  all  the  shame  fell  upon  herself  and  her  abettors. 
But  the  Jansenists  still  continued  to  avail  themselves  of 
this  ridiculous  aifair.  They  issued  pamphlets,  composed 
songs,  and  spread  the  report  that  Father  Girard  had  been 
burned  alive  at  Aix  ;  in  fact,  they  left  nothing  undone  to 
startle  or  amuse  France  at  the  expense  of  the  Jesuits. 
A  Parliamentary  decree,  proclaiming  the  innocence  of 
Father  Girard,  put  a  stop  to  these  outrages. 

In  the  following  year,  there  was  need  of  a  charge  against 
the  Jesuits  at  any  price,  in  order  to  engage  the  attention  of 
the  people,  and,  as  nothing  offered  as  a  pretext,  the  Jansen- 
ists were  compelled  to  come  to  the  rescue.  They  publicly 
announced  that  Father  Chamillard  had  died,  at  Paris,  ob- 
jecting to  the  Bull,  Unigenitus.  This  was  a  reiteration  of 
the  Lutheran  calumny,  that  the  celebrated  Father  Cani- 
sius  had  joined  their  ranks.  Chamillard  died  objecting  to 
the  Bull ;  this  was  to  say  that  he  died  a  Jansenist,  a  here- 
tic, an  apostate.  It  was  a  triumph  for  the  defeated  sect. 
The  journals  seized  upon  the  report,  and  recapitulated  the 
wonders  which  had  accompanied  and  followed  this  un- 
hoped-for death.  The  Jesuits,  ashamed  of  their  defeat, 
had  contended  with  the  Jansenists  for  the  possession  of 
the  coffin  of  Father  Chamillard.  The  latter,  being  vic- 
torious, had  carried  it  oflF,  and  deposited  it  in  a  cavern — 
no  great  honor  to  his  remains — and  from  that  cave,  from 
that  coffin,  exhaled  a  delicious  odor,  which  impregnated 
the  entire  locality.  Still  more;  by  invoking  Father  Chamil- 
lard, at  not  too  great  a  distance  from  the  cave,  marvellous 
cures  of  both  mind  and  body  were  effected.  Had  the  good 
F'ather  been  a  Jansenist  from  his  birth,  he  could  not  have 
done  more.  This  tale  was  absurd  enough  to  be  received 
with  entire  confidence,  and  it  was  successful.  But,  one 
day,  a  letter  was  received  from  Father  Chamillard,  an- 
nouncing that  he  was  not  dead,  and  that  he  did  not  object 


86  HISTORY    OF    THE   SOCIETY    OP   JESUS. 

to  the  Bull ;  but  that  he  still  lived,  and  was  a  Jesuit,  and 
loudly  denied  the  fable  published  by  the  sectarian  journals. 
He  added: 

"It  is  evident,  by  what  has  taken  place  in  regard  to  myself,  that 
if  the  Jesuits  would  only  appeal  against  the  Bull,  from  that  very 
moment  they  would  all  become  great  men — men  of  miracles,  in  the 
opinion  of  those  who  to-day  so  bitterly  decry  them — even  as  my- 
self, since  my  reported  death.  But  we  can  not  purchase  the  praises 
of  the  innovators  at  such  a  price.  We  consider  ourselves  honored 
by  their  outrages,  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  those  who  so  merci- 
lessly defame  us,  in  their  discourses  and  libellous  language,  are  the 
same  who  so  impiously  blaspheme  all  that  is  most  holy  and  de- 
serving of  respect,  in  the  Church  and  in  the  state." 

The  combined  movements  of  the  three  tendencies  should 
not,  it  seems,  have  persevered  in  this  course.  Where  is 
the  advantage  of  a  calumny,  the  falsity  of  which  is  so 
easily  proven?  True,  Calvin's  cry  was,  "Calumniate! 
calumniate!  something  will  always  remain."  The  triple 
alliance  was  most  desirous  of  o-ainini'  this  somethino;,  and 
so  it  declared  the  Jesuits  thieves.  In  1738,  the  whole  of 
Belgium  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  excitement  by  one 
Madame  Yianen,  who  asserted  that  the  sum  of  three 
hundred  thousand  florins  had  been  extorted  from  her 
by  Father  Janssens.  Here  was  another  suit  to  defend. 
The  Jesuits  could  not  permit  an  accusation  of  this  sort  to 
hano-  over  them.  The  result  was,  a  declaration  from  the 
Supreme  Council  of  Brabant,  setting  forth  that  they  found 
Father  Janssens  innocent,  and  free  from  all  reproach. 

"The  Jesuits,"  says  Ranke,  "were  all-powerful,  prin- 
cipally from  the  fact  of  their  confessing  princes  and  the 
higher  classes,  and  from  their  having  control  of  the  edu- 
cation  of  the  young."  This  fully  explains  the  bitter 
hatred  of  their  enemies  in  pursuing  them  with  their  cal- 
umnies. It  'was  absolutely  necessary,  to  their  ends,  to 
alienate  public  confidence  from  the  members  of  the  so- 


GENERALSHIP  OP   FATHER  FRANCIS  RETZ.  87 

ciety;  it  was  all  important  to  withdraw  from  them  the 
education  of  the  young,  whereby  they  formed  future  gen- 
erations, and  trained  up  those  who  were  to  compose  it  in 
too  moral  and  Christian  a  spirit.  "  In  the  midst  of  this 
new  progress,"  continues  the  same  author,  "  they  (the  Jes- 
uits) remained  steadfastly  attached  to  orthodox  doctrines, 
and  submission  to  the  Church."  Hence,  the  necessity  of 
destroying  an  order  which  educated  youth  in  a  spirit  of 
obedience,  and  which  the  coalition  of  the  Reformation, 
Jansenism,  and  unbelief  sought  to  destroy.  This  party, 
according  to  its  own  admission,  was  bent  on  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Church  ;  but,  before  reaching  the  heart  of  the 
citadel,  it  was  necessary  first  to  scale  the  outer  walls,  to 
beat  down  the  ramparts ;  it  was  necessary  to  annihilate  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 

In  the  year  17-46,  a  poor,  dying  man,  in  one  of  the  wards 
of  the  Hotel-Dieu,  in  Paris,  who  had  just  received  the  last 
sacraments,  called  around  his  death-bed  the  whole  of  the 
clergy  attached  to  the  institution.  One  of  these,  the  Abbe 
Cussae,  was  seated  before  a  small  table,  which  was  furnished 
with  pen,  ink,  and  paper.  He  was  about  to  write  down 
the  last  words  of  the  expiring  penitent. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "I  am  a  Fleming.  My  name  is 
Josse  Deroosen.  I  have  had  the  unhappiness  of  com- 
mitting a  perjury,  which  I  wish  to  retract.  Here  is  a 
document,  signed  and  sealed  under  my  own  hand,  and  on 
the  envelope  of  which  I  have  myself  written,  '■For  the  Su- 
preme Council  of  Brabant.'  I  now  desire  to  have  a  docu- 
ment drawn  up  containing  what  I  shall  dictate  to  you, 
which  I  request  you  will  all  sign  as  witnesses,  and  forward, 
together  with  my  retractation,  to  the  Council  of  Brabant, 
in  order  that  I  may  thus  appear  with  less  fear  before  the 
dread  tribunal  of  Almighty  God," 

The  priests  at  once  prepared  the  document,  which  they 
assured  Josse  Deroosen  should  be  sent  to  Flanders  without 


88  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

delay.  The  dying  man  appeared  to  await  the  promise  to 
quit  this  world,  for  in  a  few  moments  he  breathed  his  last. 
The  Supreme  Council  of  Brabant,  having  examined  the 
documents  thus  addressed  to  it  by  the  Vicars  of  the  Hotel- 
Dieu  of  Paris,  summoned  two  notaries,  in  order  to  comply 
fully  with  the  intentions  of  Josse  Deroosen,  whose  retract- 
ation they  read  as  follows: 

"Gentlemen:  It  having  pleased  Almighty  God  to  make  known 
to  me,  through  the  voice  of  His  minister,  and  still  more  by  His 
Grace,  the  injury  I  have  done  Him,  the  damage  I  have  caused  my 
neighbor,  and  the  deadly  blow  I  inflicted  on  my  own  soul  by  the  false 
testimony  I  have  given  with  regard  to  the  three  hundred  thousand 
florins  which  Madame  Vianen  alleged  had  been  extorted  from  her 
by  the  Reverend  Father  Janssens,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus;  and, 
convinced  by  the  holy  Gospel  that  I  can  not  hope  for  the  Divine 
mercy,  nor  participate  in  the  glory  of  His  elect,  unless  I  retract 
that  which  I  had  falsely  advanced  upon  oath,  I,  of  my  own  free 
will,  hereby  retract  it."'  .  .  .  [And  further  down:]  "I  beg  of 
you,  gentlemen,  to  look  upon  the  statement  I  then  made  before  M. 
du  Chaisne,  rapporteur^  as  false,  and  as  having  been  extorted  from 
me  by  solicitations,"  etc. 

This  fresh  check  did  not  occasion  the  sliffhtest  feelingr 
of  shame  in  the  enemy's  ranks,  nor  did  it  produce  the  least 
discouragement.  On  the  contrary,  calumny  was  heaped 
upon  calumny  with  greater  zeal  than  before.  Soon  the 
Jesuits  found  even  those  from  whom  they  ought  to  have 
received  support  and  protection  turn  against  them.  But 
let  us  not  be  surprised. 

"Reforming  ministers,"  says  Dr.  Ranke,  "were  placed  at  the 
helm  in  almost  all  the  Catholic  states — in  France,  Choiseul;  in 
Spain,  Wall  and  Squillace;  in  Naples,  Tanucci;  in  Portugal,  Car- 
valho — all  men,  who  had  made  it  the  main  thought  and  object  of 
their  life  to  limit  the  pretensions  of  the  Church.  In  them  the 
ecclesiastical  opposition  acquired  representatives  and  champions; 
their  individual  position  rested  upon  it,  and  open  war  was  the 
more  inevitable,  since  they  found  the  Jesuits  constantly  laboring 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  FRANCIS  RETZ.      89 

to  obstruct  their  designs  by  personal  counteraction,  and  by  per- 
sonal influence  over  the  liighest  classes  of  society."* 

Such  was  the  influence  which  called  forth  so  many  re- 
proaches; such  the  use  they  made  of  it.  They  employed 
it  to  combat  alike  the  enemies  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
state. 

11, 

Benedict  XIV  had,  at  length,  put  an  end  to  the  dif- 
ficulties with  regard  to  the  Chinese  and  Malabar  customs. 
First,  by  a  Bull  dated  July  11th,  1742,  and  by  a  second 
one  dated  September  12th,  1744,  the  Malabar  rites  and 
the  honor  rendered  in  China  to  Confucius  and  to  ances- 
tors were  no  longer  to  be  allowed  by  the  missionaries. 
The  Jesuits  willingly  submitted  to  this  command,  which 
was  the  signal  for  persecution  throughout  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire. The  Jesuits  were  hunted  down  and  put  to  death, 
and  those  neophytes  who  refused  to  join  in  the  national 
ceremonies  condemned  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  suffered 
a  like  fate.  Fathers  Hervien,  Chalier,  Beuth,  and  de  St. 
Andre  were  the  first  who  fell  martyrs  to  their  obedi- 
ence to  the  apostolical  decision.  Soon  after,  Fathers 
Du  Gad,  des  Roberts,  de  Neuvialle,  Tristan  d'Athemis, 
and  Jose  Henriquez  entered  heaven  by  the  same  means. 
At  Pekin  alone  were  the  Jesuits  protected  from  the  fury 
of  the  Mandarins.  The  Emperor  was  desirous  of  retain- 
ing them  at  his  court,  in  their  character  of  learned  men  and 
diplomatists,  and  the  holy  religious  submitted  to  be  thus 
considered,  in  order  that  they  might  keep  alive  the  faith 
among  the  Christians.  Father  de  Ventavon  was  mechani- 
cian to  the  Emperor;  Fathers  Castiglione  and  Attiret  were 
his  painters  ;  Father  Hallerstein  presided  over  the  school 
of  mathematics  ;   Father  Michael  Benoit  constructed  appa- 

*  History  of  the  Popes.     (Austin's  Trans.)    Book  VIII,  g  18,  p.  2o j. 
45 


90  HISTORY  OP   THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ratus  to  supply  tlie  gardens  of  the  palace  with  water,  which 
he  elevated  to  a  great  height,  to  the  admiration  of  the 
monarch  and  his  court.  In  this  way,  each  Jesuit  sought 
to  make  himself  necessary,  in  order  that  he  should  not  be 
compelled  to  leave  the  Christians,  who  alone  could  preserve 
the  seeds  of  the  Gospel  in  that  unhappy  country. 

The  declaration  of  submission  of  the  missionaries  of 
India  had  arrived  at  Rome  long  before  that  of  the  Jes- 
uits who  were  dispersed  throughout  China  could  be  dis- 
patched ;  so  that  the  Pope,  for  a  time,  was  in  doubt  as 
to  their  compliance,  as  may  be  perceived  in  his  Bull  of 
the  12th  of  September,  1744.  But  this  Bull,  on  its  way 
to  China,  crossed  the  declaration  of  entire  submission, 
which  the  Jesuits,  not  one  excepted,  had  sent  to  Rome. 
The  pontifical  censure  w^as  another  great  source  of  sor- 
row to  these  missionaries,  who  had  lost  the  fruits  of  so 
many  years  of  labor,  privations,  and  sufferings  of  every 
description.  Not  one  permitted  a  murmur  to  escape  his 
lips.  x\ll  submitted  to  the  censure  with  the  same  meek- 
ness and  humility  with  which  they  received  the  condem- 
nation of  their  toleration. 

The  Reductions  in  Paraguay  had  augmented  considera- 
bly. It  sometimes  occurred  that  the  savages,  being  unable 
to  bear  the  sedentary  and  laborious  life  which  was  to  lead 
to  their  civilization,  would  suddenly  decamp,  and  resume 
their  wandering  habits.  In  such  cases,  the  missionaries 
would  set  out  in  search  of  them,  and,  after  incredible 
hardships  and  fatigues,  would  frequently  succeed  in  bring- 
ing them  back.  But  they  not  unfrequently  met  with  mar- 
tyrdom in  those  heroic  adventures  after  the  strayed  sheep 
of  their  flock.  In  the  space  of  a  few  short  years,  Fathers 
Carvalho,  d'Arce,  de  Blende,  Sylva,  Maco,  Brother  Ro- 
mero, and  many  others,  met  their  death  at  the  hands  of 
the  savages,  and  their  places  were  gladly  filled  by  new 
apostles. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    FRANCIS    RETZ.  91 

The  Spanish  colonists  could  not  pardon  the  Jesuits  lor 
the  wonderful  progress  which  their  neophytes  daily  made 
in  civilization.  Tiie  natives  of  the  Reductions  had  been 
freed,  and  the  Spanish  considered  that  they  had  thus  be'en 
robbed  by  the  Christian  charity  and  benevolence  of  the 
Fathers,  who  limited,  as  much  as  they  could,  the  traffic  in 
slaves.  A  political  event  came  to  their  assistance,  in  ihe 
year  1731,  which  served  as  a  pretext  to  their  vengeance. 

A  party  had  been  formed  against  Don  Diego  de  Los 
Reyes,  Governor  of  Paraguay.  Don  Jose  d'Antequera, 
a  member  of  the  Royal  Council,  who  had  been  sent  to  As- 
sumption to  obtain  information  regarding  the  accusations 
preferred  against  Don  Diego,  became  the  judge  of  his  Su- 
perior, assumed  his  authority,  and  constituted  himself  Gov- 
ernor in  his  place.  Don  Diego  de  Los  Reyes  retired  to 
the  borders  of  the  Parana,  near  the  Reductions,  so  as  to 
be  under  the  protection  of  the  Jesuits  in  case  of  attack. 
Antequera  followed  him,  and  encamped  beyond  the  Tabi- 
quari.  The  Jesuits  could  not  be  mistaken  as  to  the  in- 
tentions of  the  usurper,  and,  desiring  to  prevent  an  aggres- 
sion on  his  part,  wrote  to  induce  him  to  retire.  Ante- 
quera, perceiving  in  this  intention  a  hostile  feeling,  in  his 
turn  expressed  some  apprehension.  Father  Francisco  de 
Roblez  and  Antonio  de  Ribera,  accompanied  by  the 
Alcaldes  and  the  officers  of  the  Reductions,  sought  him  in 
his  camp,  and  promised  him  not  to  proceed  without  a 
special  order  from  the  King. 

The  traitor  was  satisfied;  he  struck  his  camp,  hastened 
to  Assumption,  and  banished  the  Jesuits.  Then  it  was 
that  civil  war,  with  all  its  horrors,  broke  out.  Antequera, 
defeated  and  abandoned  by  his  army,  was  cast  into  prison 
and  condemned  to  death.  He  called  to  his  aid  the  Jesuits, 
whom  he  had  cruelly  persecuted,  notwithstanding  that  he 
had  been  their  pupil.  Fathers  Thomas  Cavero  and  Man- 
uel de  Galezan  responded  to  his  call.     He  cast  himself  at 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE   SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

their  feet,  craving  their  forgiveness,  and  expressing  a  heart- 
felt sorrow  for  his  crimes  ;  he  thus  regained  the  sympathy 
of  some  of  those  who  had  handed  him  over  to  public  in- 
diirnation.  Nevertheless,  he  underwent  the  chastisement 
he  had  merited,  and  died  on  the  scaffold,  July  5th,  1731. 
In  the  month  of  August,  the  Junta,  composed  of  the 
Spanish  colonists,  again  proscribed  the  Jesuits  of  Assump- 
tion, and  Don  Jose  Palos,  Bishop  of  the  diocese,  wrote  as 
follows  to  Father  Geronimo  Herran,  Provincial  of  Para- 
guay 

"  This,  Reverend  Father,  is  the  most  unhappy  day  of  my  life, 
and  I  consider  it  a  miracle  that  it  has  not  been  my  last.  I  shall 
die  of  grief  at  the  sight  of  my  beloved  Brothers  and  revered  Fa- 
thers, expelled  by  the  Common  Council,  whose  obstinacy  I  have 
been  unable  to  overcome,  although  I  have  threatened  them  three 
several  times  with  excommunication,  in  accordance  with  the  Bull 
In  ccena  Domini.  I  have  extended  it  to  all  those  who  have  coun- 
selled, abetted,  or  permitted  so  great  a  ci'ime,  by  the  general  and 
individual  interdict,  which  I  have  issued  against  the  city  and  the 
entire  province,  although  they  have  surrounded  my  cathedral  with 
soldiery,  and  have  prohibited,  under  pain  of  death,  the  ringing  of 
the  bells.  Upon  receiving  the  first  intimation  of  their  design,  I 
sent  word  to  the  Father  Rector  to  have  all  the  doors  of  the  college 
closed,  but  these  sacrilegious  men  have  forced  them  open.  In  my 
own  house,  I  was  surrounded  by  soldiers,  not  having  the  liberty 
even  of  making  my  appearance  at  the  door.  And  I  should  have 
compromised  my  character  had  1  followed  the  dictate  of  my  indig- 
nation, which  was  to  shake  the  dust  from  my  shoes,  accompany  my 
beloved  Fathers,  and  forever  bid  adieu  to  this  excommunicated 
people." 

The  insurrection  spread.  The  Marquis  of  Castel  Fuerte, 
Viceroy  of  Peru,  called  together  his  Council,  and  on  the 
24th  of  June,  1732,  resolved  upon  taking  up  arms  against 
the  insurgents.  But,  in  order  to  do  this,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  secure  the  services  of  the  natives  of  the  Reduc- 
tions, and  one  of    the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Council 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  FRANCIS  RETZ.       93 

was,  that  "His  Excellency  be  entreated  to  enjoin  the 
Father  Provincial  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Paraguay, 
or,  in  his  absence,  the  one  who  had  control  over  the  mis- 
sions of  the  said  province  of  Parana,  to  furnish  promptly 
to  Don  Bruno  Maurice  de  Zavala,  or  to  Don  Augustino 
de  Ruiloba,  Governor  of  Paraguay,  the  requisite  number 
of  Indians,  well  armed,  from  the  Tap6s  and  other  tribes, 
in  order  to  compel  the  rebels  to  return  to  the  obedience 
which  they  owe  to  His  Majesty." 

Father  de  Aguilar  led  forth  seven  thousand  Christians 
of  the  Reductions  of  Paraguay,  who  were  joined  by  others. 
The  revolt  was  suppressed,  but  the  fields,  which  had  been 
deserted  during  the  war,  yielded  no  crops,  and  a  famine 
arose,  which  engendered  disease.  The  Indians  made  no 
complaint;  they  had  learned  from  the  Jesuits  how  to  prac- 
tise Christian  fortitude.  These  good  neophytes  had  not  yet 
recovered  from  the  many  fatigues  and  privations  they  had 
endured,  when  they  were  surprised  by  a  sudden  attack  from 
the  savages,  who  penetrated  as  far  as  the  capital  of  the 
provinces.  The  Governor  appealed  to  the  neophytes, 
who,  led  by  the  missionaries,  again  seized  their  arms,  re- 
pulsed the  enemy,  and  returned  victors  to  their  towns. 

The  civil  wars  of  Paraguay  had  aroused  the  savage  in- 
stincts of  those  Indians  who,  as  yet,  had  not  come  within 
the  wholesome  influence  of  the  Jesuits. 

In  1735,  Father  Lizardi  received  orders  to  lead  his 
Christians  to  the  assistance  of  those  of  Conception,  who 
were  being  constantly  attacked  by  the  Chiriguanas.  The 
Father  obeyed  the  summons.  On  the  15th  of  May,  he 
was  oflfering  up  the  Holy  Sacrifice,  when  a  body  of  the 
Chiriguanas  fell  upon  the  little  town,  put  the  inhabitants 
to  flight,  dragged  the  holy  Jesuit  from  the  altar,  and  led 
him  into  captivity,  subjecting  him,  on  the  way,  to  the  most 
cruel  treatment.  His  strength  failing,  he  sank  to  the 
ground,  exhausted.  The  savages  saw  that  he  was  dying, 
45* 


94  HISTORY   OF   THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

and  his  extreme  attenuation  not  tempting  their  inhuman 
appetites,  they  stripped  him  of  his  vestments,  placed  him 
on  a  rock,  moved  off  to  a  distance,  transfixed  him  with 
their  arrows,  and  left  him  to  his  fate.  The  neophytes  of 
Conception  went  in  search  of  the  holy  martyr.  They  dis- 
covered his  remains  on  the  7th  of  June.  The  body  was 
half  devoured  by  birds  of  prey;  his  breviary  lay  open  at 
that  portion  containing  the  office  for  the  dead,  and  an  epit- 
ome of  the  rules  of  his  Order  was  found  lying  beside  his 
crucifix.  This  was,  indeed,  the  death  of  a  true  missionary, 
of  a  priest,  of  a  Jesuit  martyr  !  He  was  but  thirty-nine 
years  of  age. 

The  late  wars  had  just  furnished  proof  of  the  power 
which  the  Jesuits  exercised  over  the  Indians,  who  owed 
them  the  spiritual  and  temporal  happiness  which  they 
had  acquired  through  Christianity  and  civilization.  The 
Spanish  and  Portuguese,  whose  cupidity  had  to  sufier  for 
this  happiness,  saw  fit  to  awaken  the  suspicions  of  their 
respective  sovereigns  on  this  subject.  In  1737,  Father 
Aguilar  addressed  a  petition  to  the  King  of  Spain  in  justi- 
fication, and,  after  the  matter  had  been  fully  investigated, 
especially  the  strict  seclusion  in  which  the  Fathers  kept 
their  Indian  neophytes,  Philip  V  issued  a  decree  approv- 
ing, in  every  respect,  the  method  pursued  by  the  Jesuits 
in  the  government  of  their  colonies.  This  decree  was 
published  in  1743.  « 

AVhile  the  King  of  Spain  instituted  these  inquiries, 
Don  Gomez  d'Andrada,  Governor  of  Rio  Janeiro,  imag- 
ined that  he  had  discovered  the  real  motive  which  induced 
the  Jesuits  to  prohibit  all  intercourse  between  their  neo- 
phytes of  Parana  and  the  European  colonists.  Don  Go- 
mez felt  persuaded  that  they  had  made  the  discovery  of 
some  gold  mines,  which  they  secretly  worked.  His  con- 
viction on  this  point  was  so  strong,  that  he  could  not  con- 
ceive that  any  one  could  refuse  to  share  it.     But  by  what 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  FRANCIS  RETZ.  95 

means  could  this  source  of  wealth  be  taken  from  the 
Jesuits?  Don  Gomez  pondered,  investigated,  reflected, 
and,  at  last,  conimuuicated  his  discovery  to  the  court  of 
Lisbon,  advising  them  to  proposQ  to  Spain  an  exchange 
which  she  could  not  but  accept.  It  was  that  of  the  beau- 
tiful and  rich  colony  of  St.  Sacrament  for  the  seven  Re- 
ductions of  Uruguay.  Portugal  hastened  to  make  the 
proposal,  which  was  as  eagerly  accepted  by  Spain.  The 
sterility  of  Uruguay  was  known,  and  offered  no  prospects 
for  the  future,  whereas  the  colony  of  St.  Sacrament  was 
not  only  most  fertile,  but  was  the  key  to  La  Plata,  and 
rendered  its  possessors  masters  of  the  navigation  of  that 
river.  The  Indians  of  the  Reductions  of  Uruguay  num- 
bered thirty  thousand.  Don  Gomez  had,  in  proposing  the 
exchange,  made  one  condition.  It  was  that  the  thirty 
thousand  inhabitants  should  evacuate  the  country,  and 
thus  be  thrown  upon  the  mercy  of  Providence.  It  was 
necessary  that  the  land  should  be  unencumbered,  so  that 
they  might  explore  it  without  difficulty.  The  courts  of 
Spain  and  Portugal  ordered  the  Jesuits  to  prepare  their 
neophytes  for  this  evacuation,  and  superintend  it.  At  the 
same  time,  Father  Francis  Retz,  General  of  the  society, 
dispatched  an  order  in  conformity  with  those  of  the  two 
sovereigns,  and  added:  "  I  would  make  it  my  duty,  if  such 
should  be  necessary,  to  surmount  all  obstacles  which  re- 
tain me  at  Rome,  and  proceed  myself  into  those  vast 
countries,  so  as  to  facilitate,  by  my  presence,  the  prompt 
execution  of  the  royal  wishes."  This  order  bore  date 
February  15th,  1750. 

Father  Francis  Retz  did  not  witness  the  execution  of 
his  commands.  He  foresaw  the  great  grief  of  the  good 
Fathers  in  fulfilling  the  sacrifice  imposed  on  their  obedi- 
ence and  that  of  their  neophytes,  but  he  did  not  live  to 
share  it.  On  the  29th  of  November,  of  the  same  year, 
1750,  he  departed  this  life,  and  went  to  meet  those  of  his 


96        HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

brethren  -wlio  had  preceded  hira  to  a  better  world.  He 
had  had  the  happiness  of  obtaining  the  canonization  of  St. 
Francis  Resiis.  This  was  a  sweet  and  consolino;  thousrht 
to  him  in  his  last  moments.  Father  Ignatius  Visconti, 
whom  he  had  appointed  A^icar-General,  named  the  21st 
of  June,  1751,  for  the  assembling  of  the  General  Congre- 
gation. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  VISCONTI  AND  CENTURIONI.  97 


(icncralsljip  of  i'Mm  Ignatius  Discouti, 

SIXTEENTH    GENERAL, 

AND    OF 

Jfatljtr  Jmn  fenturimu, 

SEVENTEENTH   GENERAL. 

1-75  O  —  1757. 
I. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1751,  Father  Ignatius  Visconti, 
of  an  ancient  and  noble  Milanese  family,  was  called  to 
the  government  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  It  was  at  a  pe- 
riod when  the  powers  of  darkness  had  put  forth  their  last 
effort  in  all  the  courts  of  Europe,  in  the  venom  of  the  new 
philosophy.  Unbelief  was  the  rage  of  the  day.  It  was 
necessary  to  doubt  every  thing,  to  question  even  the  ex- 
istence of  God,  to  affect  a  profound  contempt  for  the  most 
sacred  things,  to  declare  hatred  to  the  Jesuits,  to  look 
with  pity  and  disdain  upon  those  who  were  so  small- 
minded  as  to  retain  a  spark  of  faith,  and  ridicule  the  ig- 
norant who  were  so  benighted  a&  still  to  fulfil  the  chief 
obligations  of  religion.  By  these  means,  men  won  for 
themselves  a  reputation  for  learning  and  sound  judgment, 
held  a  good  position  in  society,  and  even  aspired  to  the 
government  of  the  state.  It  was  not,  however,  this  kind 
of  merit  which  had  raised  to  power  the  Prime  Minister 
of  Portugal. 

The  house  of  Carvalho  d'Oeyras  was  so  dreaded  in  Es- 
tramadura  for  its  hereditary  wrath,  that  a  wealthy  citizen  of 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

Oeyras  had  left  a  legacy  to  his  parish,  on  condition  that 
the  priest,  after  the  parochial  mass  each  Sunday,  should 
recite,  with  the  faithful,  three  Patera  and  three  Aves^  to 
implore  Almighty  God  to  preserve  the  city  from  the  fury 
of  the  Carvalhos.  This  practice  had  long  existed,  when, 
in  1750,  the  heir  of  the  house — Don  Sebastian  Carvalho, 
Count  d'Oeyras,  and  subsequently  Marquis  de  Pombal, 
who  had  gained  the  confidence  of  the  Jesuits — made  use 
of  them  as  a  stepping-stone  to  power. 

John  V  had  just  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  In- 
fante Don  Joseph.  The  Marquis  de  Pombal  was  ambitious 
of  becoming  Prime  Minister,  that  he  might  be  the  better 
able  to  carry  into  execution  the  various  plans  he  had  con- 
ceived; but  this  was  no  easy  matter.  The  leading  nobility 
of  the  kingdom  were  not  ignorant  of  the  principles  and  de- 
signs entertained  by  the  Marquis  de  Pombal.  They  had 
discarded  him,  and  kept  him  away  from  the  court,  for  which 
he  had  secretly  vowed  to  be  avenged.  In  order  to  accom- 
plish this,  he  had  deceived  the  Jesuits,  who  could  not  be- 
lieve his  hypocrisy.  Father  Joseph  Moreira  was  confessor 
to  the  Infante.  It  was  to  him  especially  that  the  Marquis 
confided  his  plans  of  reform,  if  he  should  ever  be  placed 
in  power.  The  projects  for  amelioration  which  he  had 
thus  made  known  to  the  Father,  were  directly  the  oppo- 
site of  what  he,  in  his  heart,  contemplated.  As  soon  as 
the  Prince  ascended  the  throne,  his  confessor  did  not  hes- 
itate to  suggest  to  him,  as  Prime  Minister,  the  name  of 
a  man  whose  ability  was  on  a  par  with  his  eminent  piety. 
King  Joseph  placed  too  much  confidence  in  Father  Mo- 
reira not  to  listen  to  his  suggestion,  and,  accordingly,  the 
Marquis  de  Pombal  was  raised  to  the  high  position  he  so 
much  coveted.  His  plans  of  reform  were  about  to  be 
developed.   - 

The  entire  royal  family  had  selected  their  confessors 
from  among  the  members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.     Father 


GENERALSHIP    OF    VISCONTI    AND    CENTURIONI.  99 

Joseph  Moreira  was  confessor  to  the  King  and  Queen  ; 
Father  Oliveira,  of  the  Infantas ;  Father  Costa,  of  the 
King's  brother,  Don  Pedro  ;  Fathers  Canipo  and  Aranjuez, 
of  the  King's  uncles,  Don  Antonio  and  Don  Emmanuel. 
Thus,  there  were  five  Jesuits  attached  to  the  court.  This 
was  too  much  for  Pombal,  who  had  no  longer  need  of  them. 
It  was  all-important  to  him  to  procure  their  dismissal. 
Thanks  to  Father  Moreira,  the  King  had  entire  confidence 
in  his  Minister,  and  the  latter  lost  no  time  in  taking  advant- 
age of  it.  He  flattered  the  tastes,  inclinations,  and  even 
the  passions  of  the  monarch  so  dextrously  that  Joseph  I, 
who  was  naturally  weak  and  careless,  blindly  permitted 
himself  to  be  guided  by  his  favorite,  to  whom  he  abandoned 
the  entire  control  of  the  government.  The  latter  aug- 
mented the  number  of  prisons,  which  he  filled  with  in- 
mates. Whosoever  had  the  misfortune  of  displeasing  him 
was  quietly  arrested,  and  confined  in  one  or  other  of  the 
dungeons  of  the  despot.  In  1754,  he  induced  the  King 
to  sign  a  decree  to  the  efiect  that,  as  a  prime  minister 
was  liable  to  be  assassinated  for  his  political  acts,  any  such 
attempt  should  be  treated  as  high  treason.  Tbis  accom- 
plished, Pombal  had  no  difl&culty  in  convincing  the  King 
that  if  a  minister's  life  was  thus  exposed,  that  of  tbe 
King  himself  must  be  still  more  so.  In  fine,  he  went  so 
far  as  to  state  that  his  close  watchfulness  had  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  a  conspiracy,  as  certain  as  it  was  incredi- 
ble. The  Prince  Don  Pedro  courted  popularity,  with  the 
view  of  supplanting  his  brother  on  the  throne.  In  this 
the  Jesuits  seconded  his  designs,  and  aided  him  by  their 
influence  over  all  classes  of  society. 

The  decisive  blow  had  been  given.  Suspicion  was  at- 
tached to  the  Jesuits  ;  distrust  had  obtained  entrance  into 
the  heart  of  the  monarch,  and  nothing  more  was  needed 
than  to  keep  alive  the  jealous  feeling.  The  Minister  im- 
pressed His  Majesty  with  the  necessity  of  maintaining  the 


100  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

greatest  secrecy.  He  placed. at  the  disposal  of  tlie  King 
all  the  writings  which  heresy,  envy,  and  impiety  had  in- 
vented against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  caused  the  same 
works  to  be  freely  circulated  among  the  people.  A  very 
few  days  elapsed  before  the  persecution  commenced. 
Father  Ballister  was  arrested  and  banished,  under  pretext 
of  having  cast  reflections  on  a  measure  of  the  Minister. 
Father  Fonseca  was  treated  in  like  manner,  for  having 
made  suggestions  which  were  far  from  favorable  to  the 
same  proceeding.  The  banishment  of  the  entire  Order 
from  the  kingdom  was  momentarily  looked  for,  when,  on 
the  1st  of  November,  1755,  a  terrible  earthquake  visited 
the  city  of  Lisbon,  followed  by  a  fearful  conflagration. 
The  capital  was  but  one  heap  of  ruins.  The  sufi"erers 
were  numerous.  Death,  devastation,  and  misery  were  to  be 
seen  on  all  sides.  The  Jesuits  had  seven  houses  in  the 
city ;  they  were  either  destroyed  by  the  shock  of  the  earth- 
quake or  consumed  by  the  flames.  The  Fathers,  regard- 
less of  their  own  interests,  thought  only  of  the  sufl"erings 
of  the  people.  They  dispersed  themselves  throughout  the 
city,  consoling  and  encouraging  all,  giving  succor  to  the 
wounded,  and  endeavoring  to  subdue  the  devouring  ele- 
ment, seconding  the  efi"orts  of  Carvalho,  the  Prime  Minis- 
ter, and  devoting  themselves  with  extraordinary  self-denial 
to  acts  of  the  sublimest  charity.  Father  de  Malagrida 
and  Brother  Blaise  accomplished  such  wonders,  that  the 
people  were  struck  with  admiration,  to  which  they  loudly 
and  continuously  gave  expression.  That  same  people, 
whose  anger  had  been  excited  against  the  good  Fathers, 
now  ceased  not  to  call  down  blessings  upon  their  heads, 
designating  them  as  the  second  saviors  of  the  unfortunate 
population  of  Lisbon.  The  King,  moved  by  these  services, 
rendered  during  a  calamity  of  which  they  themselves  had 
been  the  first  victims,  recalled  the  exiled  Fathers,  and  had 
the  parent  house  rebuilt  at  his  own  expense.     Father  de 


GENERALSHIP  OP  VISCONTI  AND  CENTURIONI.        101 

Malagrida,  taking  advantage  of  the  King's  good  will, 
brouglit  him  back  to  a  proper  sense  of  his  duty  as  a 
Christian,  of  which,  for  some  time,  he  had  been  negligent, 
and  all  appeared  to  forebode  a  happier  future,  when  the 
Marquis  de  Pombal  renewed  his  opposition.  Father  de 
Malagrida  had  succeeded  in  leading  back  Joseph  to  the 
piety  of  his  youth.  This  was  exercising  an  influence  over 
the  monarch  which  Carvalho  desired  no  one  but  himself  to 
possess.  On  that  and  on  many  other  accounts,  the  Jesuits 
could  no  longer  be  tolerated  at  the  court. 

The  exchange  of  the  territory  of  Uruguay  for  the  colony 
of  St.  Sacrament  had  not  been  completed.  On  receiving 
the  order  from  the  General  of  the  society,  Father  Barreda, 
Provincial  of  Paraguay,  had  appointed  Father  NeydorfFert 
to  assume  his  place,  and,  notwithstanding  his  advanced  age, 
he  hastened  to  communicate  to  the  Caciques,  and  mission- 
aries of  the  Reductions  interested,  the  command  which  he 
bad  received  from  the  sovereigns  and  from  his  Superior. 
The  Caciques  declared  that  they  preferred  death  to  the 
unjust  banishment  thus  imposed  upon  them.  They  had 
themselves  founded  these  colonies,  built  the  towns,  culti- 
vated the  barren  soil,  erected  these  churches,  so  dear  to 
their  hearts,  and  were  unwilling  to  give  up  any  of  these 
to  Portugal,  and,  if  compelled,  they  would  have  recourse 
to  arms  to  maintain  their  rights  and  defend  their  homes. 

The  Jesuits  fully  understood  the  position,  and  partici- 
pated in  the  grief  to  which  it  gave  rise.  They  sent  ad- 
dresses to  the  two  courts,  imploring  them  not  to  urge  the 
completion  of  the  proposed  exchange.  The  Minister 
Pombal  charnred  them  with  creating;  discontent  among  the 
neophytes,,  in  order  to  retain  possession  of  the  gold  mines — 
that  dream  of  Don  Gomez  d'Andrada.  The  Fathers 
urged  the  matter  no  further,  for  they  felt  that,  to  such  a 
charge,  their  only  answer  was  to  employ  all  their  influence 
over  the  Indians,  and  yield  the  field  to  the  cupidity  of 
46 


102  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

the  government.  But  the  Indians  were  sufficiently  civil- 
ized to  understand  the  injustice  of  which  they  were  to  be 
the  victims.  They  accused  the  missionaries  of  being  the 
instigators  of  the  exchange.  Others  charged  them  with 
weakness  and  indiiference ;  and  all,  worked  upon  by  the 
emissaries  of  Don  Carvalho,  felt  convinced  that  the  Jes- 
uits, whom  they  had  so  dearly  loved,  had  only  instructed 
and  civilized  them  for  the  benefit  of  Portugal,  to  whom 
they  were  now  to  give  up  the  fruits  of  all  their  toils. 

Several  tribes,  refusing  to  yield  to  the  appeals  and  ex- 
hortations of  the  Jesuits,  from  whom  their  enemies  had 
sought  to  alienate  them,  rebelled  against  the  Portuguese. 
Some  were  compelled  to  surrender;  others  retreated,  and, 
being  no  longer  guided  and  watched  over  by  the  Jesuits, 
sufi'ered  by  their  proximity  to,  and  intercourse  with,  the 
vicious  Europeans.  Thus,  the  natives  were  deprived  of 
that  life  of  innocence  and  simple  piety  which  had  so  long 
constituted  their  true  happiness. 

The  Portuguese,  being  now  masters  of  the  Reductions, 
dug  and  sought  in  vain,  under  the  direction  of  qualified 
engineers,  who  were  sent  by  the  avaricious  Pombal,  but  no 
gold  mines  could  be  found.  Ashamed  of  his  defeat,  Don 
Gomez  was  forced  to  recognize  that  the  mines  had  existed 
only  in  his  own  imagination.  He  made  this  admission  to 
Don  Carvalho;  he  avowed  it  to  the  Jesuits,  and  he  was 
sorely  distressed  at  the  unfortunate  bargain  into  which  he 
had  led  his  government,  and  which  he  desired  to  annul ; 
but  it  was  too  late. 

The  fable  of  the  gold  mines  enriching  the  Jesuits 
needed  no  further  contradiction.  It  died  a  natural  death. 
Another  had  to  be  invented.  The  Jesuit  King  had  not, 
as  yet,  suggested  itself  to  any  calumniator's  mind.  Pom- 
bal first  conceived  the  idea  and  gave  it  birth.  Innumera- 
ble writings,  in  almost  every  language,  were,  by  his  direc- 
tion, circulated  throughout  the  entire  country,  which  set 


GENERALSniP  OF  VISCONTI  AND  CENTURION!.        103 

forth  that  the  Jesuits  reigned  supreme  in  Paraguay;  that 
all  the  Reductions  founded  by  their  exertions  had  just 
been  united  under  one  sceptre,  and  that  a  Brother  Coadju- 
tor had  been  proclaimed  Emperor  of  Paraguay,  under  the 
title  of  Nicholas  I.  Gold  mines,  which  were  unknown  to 
the  Europeans,  supplied  the  precious  metal  which  was 
converted  into  the  current  coin  of  the  empire,  bearing  the 
eflfigy  of  the  Jesuit  Emperor.  In  this  calumny  the  ridic- 
ulous contended  with  the  absurd.  People  of  sense  could 
not  suppress  a  smile,  which  was  followed  by  a  burst  of  in- 
diiination  aiiainst  the  author  of  the  infernal  libel.  Unre- 
fleeting  minds  saw  in  it  the  ambition  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
really  gave  it  credence,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  it 
was  in  print.  The  King  of  Spain,  being  fully  informed  of 
the  state  of  the  case  by  Don  Zevalos,  Governor  of  Para- 
guay, caused  the  calumnious  pamphlets  of  the  Portuguese 
Minister  to  be  burned  by  the  public  executioner.  He 
took  this  step,  notwithstanding  the  earnest  entreaties  of 
the  Duke  of  Alba,  who  was  in  league  with  Don  Carvalho, 
and  believed  that  such  a  monarch  as  the  Emperor  Nicholas 
I,  Brother  Coadjutor  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  really  ruled  in 
Paraguay.  Don  Zevalos  had  visited  all  the  Reductions. 
The  Caciques  had  related  to  him  all  the  efforts  of  the  Port- 
uguese to  injure  the  Jesuits  in  their  estimation,  the  weak- 
ness they  had  displayed  in  entertaining  these  suspicions, 
and  the  regret  which  they  now  felt  for  the  same.  The 
Governor  had  met,  throughout  his  dominion,  nought  but 
faithful  and  submissive  subjects,  pious  Christians,  mission- 
aries of  edifying  and  exemplary  lives,  and  he  could  only 
deplore  the  existing  relations  between  the  natives  and 
Europeans;  for,  to  many,  it  was  impossible  to  restore  their 
former  Christian  innocence,  their  childlike  docility,  their 
gentle  and  simple  piety,  although  they  were  still  edifying 
Christians. 

The  Marquis  de  Pombal  contemplated  an  alliance  be- 


104  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tween  the  Princess  de  Beira  and  tlie  Duke  of  Cumberland. 
By  such  a  union,  he  saw  a  means  of  placing  a  Protestant 
on  the  throne  of  Portugal,  and  thus  establishing  Protest- 
antism in  the  kingdom.  The  Jesuits,  who  were  the  spirit- 
ual directors  of  the  royal  family,  had  opposed  the  alliance, 
the  consequences  of  which  could  only  be  injurious  to  re- 
ligion. Pombal  could  not  forgive  this  opposition  to  his 
plans.  Among  the  gentlemen  of  the  court,  there  were 
many  who  were  as  hostile  to  him  as  they  were  friendly  to 
the  Jesuits.  He  sacrificed  them  to  his  ambitious  views, 
and  to  his  diabolical  hatred  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He 
removed  all  the  nobility  from  the  administration  and  state 
offices ;  he  imprisoned,  confiscated,  and  persecuted ;  he 
handed  over  the  universities  to  the  control  of  Protestants, 
Infidel  philosophers,  and  Jansenists,  and  isolated  the  King 
from  all  those  who  could  have  opened  his  eyes  to  so  much 
iniquity.  The  confessors  of  the  royal  family  were  still  at 
the  court.  These  he  had  not  yet  dared  to  expel.  But, 
on  the  19th  of  September,  1757,  he  caused  Fathers  More- 
ira,  Costa,  and  Oliveira  to  be  forcibly  carried  off  from  the 
palace.  He,  at  the  same  time,  wrote  to  the  King's  uncles, 
ordering  them  to  select  other  confessors  in  the  place  of 
Fathers  Campo  and  Aranjuez,  and,  finally,  prohibited  the 
Jesuits  from  appearing  at  court.  In  order  to  justify  this 
tyranny  in  the  eyes  of  the  royal  family,  he  accused  the 
Fathers  of  conspiring  against  the  state.  The  Provincial 
ordered  his  religious  to  make  no  reply,  but  to  suffer  pa- 
tiently. Of  what  avail  would  be  an  attempt  at  justifica- 
tion, when  the  avenues  to  the  throne  were  closed  against 
them?  Did  not  every  honest  mind  in  Portugal  render 
justice  to  those  Jesuits,  so  beloved,  so  respected,  and  so 
venerated  throughout  the  kingdom  ? 


GENERALSHIP    OF   VISCONTI  AND    CENTURIONI.       105 

II. 

Notwithstanding  his  scandalous  life,  Louis  XV  had 
a  confessor,  in  name;  it  was  the  custom.  Father  Perus- 
seau,  who  had  filled  that  office,  died  in  1753,  and  imme- 
diately philosophers,  Protestants,  and  Jansenists  used 
every  means  in  their  power  to  have  the  Jesuits  excluded 
from  this  function.  The  Bishop  of  Mirepoix,  Boyer,  who 
had  the  disposal  of  the  benefices,  strenuously  opposed 
their  eflforts,  and  caused  the  nomination  of  Father  Onu- 
phre-Desmaretz,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  in  spite  of  the 
hostile  coalition. 

In  the  same  year  the  Parliament  was  banished.  With 
this  mark  of  the  King's  displeasure,  the  Jesuits  had  noth- 
ing to  do  ;  but  it  was  convenient  that  they  should  bear  the 
blame,  and,  accordingly,  they  were  charged  with  having 
excited  the  anger  of  the  Queen  and  the  Dauphin  against 
the  chief  magistrates.  They  were  even  accused  of  ruling 
the  Archbishop  of  Paris  and  the  Bishop  of  Mirepoix,  of 
imbuing  the  mind  of  the  Count  d'Argenson  with  a  hatred 
of  all  the  Parliaments,  and  of  leading  by  the  nose  the 
valiant  Marshal  de  Belle-Isle.  Free-thinkers  asserted 
that  their  influence  was  unlimited,  and  all  felt  constrained 
to  give  credence  to  these  absurdities. 

The  whole  of  the  French  colonies  of  the  New  World 
were  under  the  spiritual  rule  of  the  Jesuits.  The  missions 
there  were  numerous,  laborious,  and  perilous,  as  were  all 
those  of  the  two  Americas.  The  government,  in  giving 
establishments  to  Jesuits,  at  the  same  tira«  ceded  to  them 
a  tract  of  land,  destined  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  numer- 
ous missions,  as  well  as  the  requirements  of  the  colleges, 
which  were  gratuitous,  and  the  personal  expenses  of  the 
missionaries.      The    procurators*    improved    these    lands, 

*■  Those  who  have  charge  of  the  temporal  aflairs  of  a  house,  col- 
lege, or  province  of  the  society. — Tr. 
46* 


106  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

exchanging  their  produce  with  the  French  merchants  for 
provisions  and  the  most  necessary  articles  of  consump- 
tion— wine,  oil,  flour,  cloth,  linen,  and  the  like — which 
could  not  otherwise  be  obtained  in  their  own  country. 

Father  Antoine  de  Lavalette,  descended  from  a  noble  fam- 
ily of  llouergue,  which  had  furnished  a  Grand  Master  of  the 
Knights  of  Malta,  was  Procurator-General  of  the  Caribbee 
missions,  and  had,  for  more  than  twelve  years,  resided  at 
Martinique,  when,  in  1753,  he  was  denounced,  both  to  the 
Minister  of  Marine  in  France  and  to  the  General  of  the  so- 
ciety, as  being  engaged  in  commerce.  Father  Visconti  at 
once  ordered  Antoine  de  Lavalette  to  repair  to  France,  to 
give  an  account  of  his  alleged  conduct.  Kouille,  French 
Minister  of  Marine,  sent  a  similar  order.  The  Jesuit 
obeyed.  The  Intendant  of  the  Isles  du  Yent,  Hurson, 
being  in  a  position  to  fathom  the  motives  of  such  an  accu- 
sation, addressed  a  letter  to  the  General  of  the  society, 
dated  September  17th,  1753,  in  which  he  expressed  the 
great  astonishment  of  all  those  who  best  knew  Father  de 
Lavalette,  at  the  calumny  uttered  against  him.  The  Jes- 
uit was  so  much  beloved  and  respected  at  Martinique,  that 
the  most  honorable  and  distinguished  colonists  also  wrote 
to  France,  protesting  against  the  imputation. 

These  contradictions  and"testimonials  being  conclusive, 
Father  de  Lavalette  was  sent  back  to  Martinique,  where 
he  was  anxiously  awaited,  and  where,  to  the  great  satisfac- 
tion of  the  inhabitants,  he  arrived  in  the  month  of  May, 
1755.  During  his  absence,  the  administration  of  the  tem- 
poral aifairs  had  been  much  neglected. 

The  Jesuits,  ever  engaged  in  preaching,  hearing  confes- 
sions, or  in  winning  over  converts,  trouble  themselves  but 
little  about  worldly  matters.  On  arriving  in  the  Caribbees, 
the  spiritual  wants  of  the  mission  so  entirely  engrossed 
their  attention  and  occupied  their  time,  that,  being  in  want 
of  common  necessities,  both  for  themselves   and  for  the 


GENERALSHIP   OF  VISCONTI    AND    CENTURIONI.       107 

missions,  they  had  been  compelled  to  contr.ict  a  loan.  The 
land  which  had  been  ceded  them  had  to  be  cleared  and 
cultivated  before  it  could  yield  any  thing,  and,  in  the  mean 
time,  they  had  to  live,  to  found  and  support  missions,  as 
well  as  to  expend  money,  in  order  to  prepare  a  future  rev- 
enue. All  this  had  caused  them  to  contract  considerable 
debts,  a  good  portion  of  which  Father  de  Lavalette  had 
already  liquidated,  when  ordered  to  return  to  France,  in 
1753. 

On  his  arrival,  after  an  absence  of  two  years,  he  found 
himself  in  a  worse  pecuniary  position  than  before,  con- 
sequent upon  the  neglect  of  the  temporal  affairs  of  the 
missions.  This  necessitated  the  incurring  of  fresh  respons- 
ibilities. He  purchased  more  land,  in  order  that,  thereby, 
he  might  be  the  sooner  able  to  meet  the  liabilities  of  the 
various  houses,  and,  finding  that  matters  were  improving, 
he  ventured  a  little  too  far,  in  the  hope  of  being  the  more 
quickly  out  of  debt.  He  bought  more  land  at  Dominica, 
for  which  he  procured  another  loan,  and  then,  and  then 
only,  did  he  begin  to  trade.  He  exceeded  the  limits  as- 
signed by  the  constitutions  of  the  society,  and  thus  merited 
the  censure  to  w'hich  he  had  been  so  unjustly  subjected, 
a  few  years  before.  Then  Providence,  as  we  have  seen, 
took  upon  itself  the  care  of  his  justification ;  now  it  seemed 
to  accuse  him  by  multiplying  its  chastisements.  An  epi- 
demic proved  fearfully  fatal  among  the  laborers  whom  he 
had  engaged  to  clear  and  cultivate  the  lands;  war  broke 
out  between  England  and  France,  and  a  ship,  which  was 
chartered  and  laden  on  his  account,  was  captured  by  an 
English  cruiser.  Father  Lavalette  did  not  shrink  on  the 
brink  of  the  precipice,  of  which  he  had  already  measured 
the  depth.  •  The  confidence  he  inspired  was  such,  that  he 
could  have  obtained  sufficient  time  to  have  repaired  his 
losses,  with  the  resources  still  at  his  command  ;  but  all 
that  he  saw  was  his   debts,  and   all   that  he  felt  was  his 


108  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

anxiety  to  liquidate  them  at  the  earliest  monient.  He 
entered  upon  fresh  undertakin<is  ;  but  no  more  than  the 
others  did  these  receive  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God, 
for  they  were  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Institute. 
Father  Lavalette  had  not  profited  by  the  warnings  and 
lessons  of  Providence ;  he  was  now  about  to  receive  the 
warnings  of  men,  to  whose  lessons  he  would  be  compelled 
to  submit.  While  he  thus  contracted  new  obligations 
and  speculated  afresh,  the  firm  of  Lioncy  Brothers,  of 
Marseilles,  who  were  his  creditors,  learning  the  disasters 
which  had  befallen  him,  became  uneasy  about  the  pay- 
ment of  their  claims.  They  informed  the  Jesuits  of  Mar- 
seilles. The  Superior  at  once  wrote  to  the  General  of  the 
Order,  communicating  the  melancholy  fact. 

Father  A^isconti  no  longer  governed  the  society.  He 
had  expired  on  the  4th  of  May,  1755,  and  Father  Louis 
Centurioni  was  called  to  succeed  him  on  the  30th  of  No- 
vember of  the  same  year. 

In  the  month  of  September,  1756,  he  appointed  Father 
de  Montigny  Visitor  to  Martinique,  with  instructions  to 
examine  into  the  accounts  and  management  of  Father  de 
Lavalette,  and  to  prohibit  him  from  entering  into  further 
commercial  transactions.  An  interposition  of  Providence 
prevented  the  departure  of  the  Visitor.  In  the  month  of 
November,  the  General  charged  Father  Huberland  with 
the  same  commission;  but  the  latter,  like  his  predecessor, 
was  hindered  from  starting,  by  circumstances  which  he 
could  not  control.  In  the  mean  time,  continued  corre- 
spondence was  kept  up  on  the  subject. 

On  the  5th  of  January,  1757,  a  man  named  Damiens 
made  an  attempt  to  assassinate  Louis  XV,  by  stabbing 
him  with  a  knife. ^     The  assassin  had  served  the  Jesuits, 


■*It  was  not  a  poniard,  as  some  historians  assert;   it  was  one  of 
three  knives  found  in  the  possession  of  the  assassin  at  the  time  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF  VISCONTI  AND  CENTURIONI.        105 

but  had  qiiittcd  their  house  some  time  previous.  lie  had, 
likewise,  been  employed  by  several  members  of  Parlia- 
ment. Nevertheless,  it  was  the  Jesuits  alone  who  had 
instigated  him  to  this  attempt  on  the  King's  life.  The 
conclusion  was  not  very  logical ;  but  when  there  is  ques- 
tion of  the  society,  men  are  willing  to  believe  any  thing. 
The  truths  of  the  Gospel  are  questioned ;  but  the  most 
absurd  accusations  are  credited  when  preferred  against 
the  Jesuits.  The  positive  denial  of  these  accusations  by 
Damiens  himself  was  of  no  avail  to  silence  the  calumni- 
ators. 

Father  Centurioni,  who,  ever  since  his  election,  had 
been  in  ill-health,  day  by  day  visibly  declined.  Having 
appointed  Father  Anthony  Timoni  Vicar-General,  he  ex- 
pired on  the  2d  of  October,  1757.  The  Vicar-General 
having  convoked  the  Congregation  for  the  8th  of  May, 
1758,  Father  Lorenzo  Ilicci,  who  belonged  to  an  illustri- 
ous Florentine  family,  was,  on  the  21st  of  the  same  month, 
elected  Eighteenth  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  being, 
at  the  time,  fifty-five  years  of  age. 

his  arrest.  They  were  given  in  charge  of  the  Pa<-liament  as  evi- 
dences Of'  his  guilt,  and  subsequently  preserved  in  the  cabinet  of  the 
Attorney-General,  Joly  de  Fleury,  where  we  have  examined  them, 
as  w^ell  as  Damiens*  handkerchief.  They  are  clasp-knives,  having 
a  slightly  curved  blade  iitting  into  a  rudely-made  wooden  handle, 
and  commonly  called  a  EustacJie.  The  handkerchief,  also  of  com- 
mon material,  was  a  blue  check.  These  articles,  as  well  as  the  law 
report  of  the  trial,  which  had  been  inclosed  in  a  box  ever  since 
1757,  were,  a  few  years  since,  handed  over  to  the  Imperial  Library 
by  the  Joly  de  Fleury  family,  as  were,  likewise,  all  the  archives  of 
the  Attorney-General. 


110  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OP   JESUS. 


EIGHTEENTH    GENERAL. 
1758  — 1775. 

I. 

The  idea  of  a  Jesuit  Emperor,  of  a  Nicholas  I,  Brother 
Coadjutor  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  had  seemed  very 
plausible  to  a  people  the  most  acute  and  enlightened  of 
Europe,  or  of  the  entire  world.  The  free-thinkers,  who 
reigned  supreme  in  the  fashionable  society  in  France  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  had  only  one  regret,  which  was 
that  they  themselves  had  not  been  its  originators.  It  is 
true  that  they  adopted  and  used  it  as  freely  as  if  it  had 
been  the  result  of  their  own  labors,  and  they  had  taken 
such  pains  to  spread  it,  and  to  turn  it  to  account,  that  it 
became  quite  the  rage,  especially  in  Paris.  To  deny  the 
existence  of  God,  and  affirm  that  of  the  Emperor  of  Para- 
guay, was  to  show  the  very  best  taste.  The  Portuguese 
INHnister,  who  was  thought  to  be  the  author  of  this  ridicu- 
lous fable,  was  declared  to  be  a  great  man.  and  the  phi- 
losophers, in  their  correspondence,  lavished  upon  him  the 
most  flattering  encomiums. 

Don  CarvAlho  needed  no  such  encouragement.  Firmly 
resolved  to  rid  himself  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  so  as  to 
succeed  the  more  easily  in  abolishing  Catholicity  in  Port- 
ugal, he  was  treating  with  Home,  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining the  reformation  of  that  Order,  under  the  pretext 
that  the  Jesuits  applied  themselves  to  commerce  in  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.         Ill 

Brazils.  Two  Cardinals,  ayIio  liaJ  been  influenced  by  the 
enemies  of  the  society,  importuned  the  Pope  to  f^rant  the 
Brief  solicited  by  the  Marquis  de  Pombal.  Benedict  XIV 
was  in  ill-health  and  very  feeble.  The  enemies  of  the  so- 
ciety, availing  themselves  of  this  circumstance,  presented 
their  Brief,  ur<i;in2:  His  Holiness  to  si<rn  it.  The  Sovereiorn 
Pontiff  did  so,  and  addressed  it  to  Cardinal  Saldanha, 
whom  he  named  Visitor  of  the  houses  of  the  society  in 
Portugal,  and  whom  he  charged  with  the  execution  of  the 
Brief.  This  took  place  on  the  1st  of  April,  1758.  The 
General  of  the  society  was  in  total  ignorance  of  the  matter. 
Every  thing  had  been  carried  on  with  the  greatest  se- 
crecy. 

A  few  days  afterward,  Benedict  XIY,  feeling  his  end 
approaching,  felt  grieved  for  what  he  had  done,  and  dic- 
tated instructions  to  Cardinal  Archinto  for  Cardinal  Sal- 
danha, hoping,  by  this  means,  to  modify  a  measure  which 
he  so  much  regretted.  He  foresaw  that  evil-intentioned 
men  might  take  advantage  of  this  Brief,  and  he  com- 
manded the  Cardinal  to  exercise  great  prudence,  mild- 
ness, and  discretion;  to  keep  secret  the  chief  accusations 
he  might  discover;  not  to  communicate  any  thing  to  the 
ministers;  to  reject  all  the  insinuations  of  the  enemies  of 
the  society ;  to  come  to  no  conclusion,  and  to  make  a  con- 
scientious report  to  the  Holy  See,  who  reserved  to  itself 
the  right  of  giving  judgment. 

These  instructions  partly  annulled  the  Brief,  since  Car- 
dinal Saldanha  had  thus  no  power  beyond  that  of  examin- 
ing and  reporting;  but  this  was  to  cast  a  doubt  on  that 
which  the  Minister  Pombal  wished,  by  all  means,  to  decide, 
and  the  Cardinal,  being  his  instrument  and  his  friend,  had 
no  will  of  his  own.  The  consequence  was,  that  they  con- 
cluded to  consider  these  last  instructions  as  the  hallucina- 
tions of  a  dying  man,  and  not  deserving  of  notice.  On 
the  2d  of  May,  1758,  the  Jesuits  were  made  acquainted 


112  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS, 

witli  tlie  Brief  of  Eeforraation.  Benedict  XIY  expired 
on  the  3d,  deploring  his  weakness  in  having  yielded  on 
this  point. 

The  commissions  of  Nuncios,  or  Apostolical  Visitors, 
cease  on  the  death  of  the  Pope,  and  the  Briefs,  with  the 
execution  of  which  they  have  been  charged,  are,  by  the  fact 
itself,  annulled  in  all  places  where  they  have  not  been  pub- 
lished prior  to  that  event.  Cardinal  Saldanha  informed 
the  Minister  of  the  difficulty  of  his  position,  with  regard 
to  the  province  of  Brazil,  to  which  the  Brief  had  not  yet 
been  forwarded.  Don  Carvalho  ridiculed  his  scruples,  and 
a  decree  of  the  Council  ordered  the  publication  and  exe- 
cution of  the  Brief  of  Reformation  in  Brazil,  as  well  as  in 
Portugal.  Thirteen  days  after,  the  Cardinal  issued  a 
mandatory  letter,  setting  forth  that  the  Jesuits  were  en- 
gaged in  commerce  prohibited  by  the  laws  of  the  Church. 

There  was  no  question  here  of  any  trading  in  the  least 
resembling  that  in  which  Father  de  Lavalette  was  so  un- 
fortunate as  to  embark ;  it  was  merely  a  question  of  an 
exchange,  which  was  permitted  to  the  missionaries  by  the 
Kings,  by  the  Generals  of  the  society,  and  by  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiffs,  which  exchange  was,  moreover,  indispens- 
able for  the  support  of  the  missions. 

Not  a  single  murmur  escaped  the  Jesuits,  ever  heroic 
in  their  self-abnegation.  Their  papers,  correspondence, 
books  of  accounts,  all  were  taken  from  them,  with  a  view 
of  discovering  therein  some  trace  of  a  prohibited  negotia- 
tion; but  nothing  of  the  kind  was  to  be  found.  It  was, 
nevertheless,  necessary  to  strike  at  the  apostolical  existence 
of  the  Jesuits.  The  Minister  willed  it.  The  Patriarch  of 
Lisbon  interdicted  all  those  of  his  diocese  on  the  7th  of 
June,  1758. 

A  month  later,  on  the  6th  of  July,  the  conclave  raised 
Cardinal  Bezzonico  to  the  Sovereign  Pontificate,  and  the 
newly-created    Pope   took    the    name    of   Clement  XIII. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  113 

On  the  31st  of  July,  which  was  the  feast  of  the  holy 
founder  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Father  Rlcci,  his  ei<^ht- 
eenth  successor,  prostrated  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter,  and  presented  to  him  an  humble  and 
touching  petition  regarding  the  circumstances  which  we 
have  just  related,  with  the  request  that  the  missionaries 
of  the  society  should  not  be  prohibited  from  continuing 
their  foreign  missions. 

Clement  XIII  received  this  just  demand  with  paternal 
kindness,  and,  in  accordance  with  Father  Ricci's  desire, 
appointed  a  Congregation,  to  which  was  submitted  the  in- 
vestigation of  this  melancholy  affair.  Don  Carvalho,  being 
informed  of  the  kindly  disposition  manifested  by  the  Pope 
toward  the  Jesuits,  did  not  await  the  decision  of  the  Con- 
gregation to  strike  anew  the  victims  which  the  powers 
of  darkness  claimed  at  his  impious  hands.  He  had  ban- 
ished Fathers  Fonseca,  Malagrida,  Fereira,  and  Torrez, 
whose  popularity  gave  him  umbrage,  and  he  now  sought 
to  extinguish  in  others  the  spirit  of  their  holy  Institute. 
He  succeeded  no  better  by  this  mode  of  proceeding  than 
he  had  by  endeavoring  to  intimidate  them.  All  continued 
firmly  attached  to  their  Order;  all  remained  faithful  to 
their  vows. 

The  family  of  Tavora  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  il- 
lustrious of  Portugal.  In  both  respects,  the  Carvalho  family 
was  its  inferior.  Nevertheless,  the  all-powerful  Minister, 
fully  convinced  that  no  one  would  ever  dare  to  oppose 
his  sovereisn  will,  demanded  an  alliance  between  his  son 
and  one  of  the  daughters  of  Tavora.  The  nobility  kept 
aloof  from  him,  and  he  relied  upon  this  alliance  to  compel 
a  more  favorable  intercourse.  The  Marquis  of  Tavora  re- 
fused the  hand  of  his  daughter  to  the, Marquis  de  Pombal, 
and  the  latter  vowed  to  be  avenged. 

On  the  3d  of  September,  1758,  Joseph  I  was  present  at 
an  entertainment  of  the  Marquis  de  Tavora.  He  remained 
47 


114:  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

until  a  late  hour,  and,  on  his  return  to  the  palace  in  his 
carriage,  he  was  fired  at,  the  ball  wounding  him  in  the  shoul- 
der. On  the  following  day,  the  entire  city  heard  that  the 
King  had  been  attacked  and  wounded  by  the  hired  assas- 
sins of  the  Marquis  de  Tavora.  Of  course,  the  attempted 
assassination  could  have  been  only  by  his  orders,  for  it  had 
occurred  just  as  the  King  left  the  house  of  the  Marquis. 

This  public  rumor,  which  was  originated  by  the  secret 
agents  of  the  Prime  Minister,  appeared  to  have  little  efi'ect 
upon  him.  He  feigned  to  discredit  it,  and  attributed  the 
attempt  upon  the  King's  life  rather  to  the  Jesuits.  The 
Tavoras  continued  to  visit  the  royal  family,  frequenting 
the  court,  as  usual,  when,  all  at  once,  on  the  12th  of  De- 
cember, they  were  carried  off  from  their  dwellings — they, 
their  relatives  and  friends — and  cast  into  the  dungeons  of 
the  tyrannical  Pombal,  the  ladies  being  consigned  to  con- 
vents. Whoever  was  heard  to  express  sympathy  for  the 
prisoners,  or  suggest  their  innocence,  suffered  the  same 
fate.  On  the  12th  of  January,  1759,  the  Jesuits  were  de- 
clared to  be  instigators  of,  or  accomplices  in,  the  attempt 
to  assassinate  the  King,  and  the  31inister  caused  to  be  cast 
into  the  darkest  dungeons  of  his  horrible  Bastiles  Fathers 
Henriquez,  the  Provincial,  Malagrida,  Perdigano,  Suarez, 
Juan  de  Mattos,  Oliveira,  and  Fran§ois  Costa.  The  last 
named  had  been  the  confessor  of  the  King's  brother,  Don 
Pedro,  and  his  enemies  subjected  him  to  every  description 
of  torture,  with  a  view  to  extort  from  him  a  single  ex- 
pression that  might  compromise  the  Infante;  but  tortures 
availed  nothing  with  Father  Costa.  He  suffered  all,  but 
accused  no  one. 

On  the  following  day,  the  13th,  all  the  members  of  the 
Tavora  family,  with  the  exception  of  the  daughter  of  the 
Marquis,  met  their  death  on  the  scafi^old,  for  having  re- 
fused to  enter  iuto  an  alliance  with  the  cruel  and  impious 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  115 

Carvallio,  Marquis  de  Pombal!  For,  never  could  that 
Minister  adduce  proof  that  any  one  of  its  members  had  had 
the  least  hand,  or  taken  any  part  in  the  crime  with  which 
he  had  the  hardihood  t(5  charge  them,  and  of  which  he 
himself  was  accused  by  the  whole  of  Portugal.  The  shot 
had  been  so  fired  as  not  to  strike  the  monarch.  It  had 
never  been  proven  that  His  Majesty  was  wounded  at  all. 
The  ministerial  explanations  on  the  subject  were  most  am- 
biguous. Every  thing  tended  to  show  that  Pombal  needed 
a  pretext  to  rid  himself  of  a  family  who  had  offended  him, 
and  of  the  Jesuits,  who  obstructed  his  schemes  for  a  re- 
ligious reformation.     Pombal  did  not  stop  here. 

The  Jesuits  suffered  without  complaint ;  it  was  neces- 
sary to  compromise  them.  Pombal,  therefore,  under  the 
names  of  several  of  the  Fathers  of  the  society,  published 
the  most  severe  and  libellous  satires  against  the  King. 
The  Episcopacy,  alarmed  by  such  an  extent  of  iniquity,  ap- 
pealed to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  praying  His  Holiness  to 
interpose  his  authority  in  favor  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
which  was  so  cruelly  outraged.  Pombal  pretended  that 
his  only  desire  was  to  restore  the  Order  to  the  spirit  of 
its  founder,  which  he  asserted  it  had  lost,  and  that  it  was 
purely  in  its  interest,  and  for  its  benefit,  that  he  had  inter- 
fered. To  secure  this  reform,  which  he  deemed  so  neces- 
sary in  the  sole  interests  of  the  society^  he  caused  fifteen 
hundred  Jesuits  to  be  seized  and  imprisoned;  he  confis- 
cated all  their  property,  and  caused  to  be  remitted  to  the 
Pope  a  letter  of  Joseph  I,  announcing  to  His  Holiness 
the  determination  of  that  prince  to  expel  all  the  Jesuits 
from  his  states.     This  letter  bore  date  April  20th,  1759. 

At  the  same  time,  Pombal's  agents  in  Brazil  deprived 
the  natives  o-f  the  missionaries,  who  had  caused  them  to 
become  the  children  of  God  and  of  the  Church.  The 
missionaries  were  sent  on  board  vessels  bound  for  Europe, 


116  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

without  means,  without  provisions,  and  with  less  consider- 
ation than  would  be  extended  to  the  most  desperate  mal- 
efactors. 

The  Portuguese  Ambassador  at  Rome,  Almada,  was  a 
relative  of  Pouibal,  his  tool  and  his  friend.  They  were 
worthy  of  each  other.  The  3iinister,  finding  that  the  Pope 
did  not  respond  to  the  letter  of  Joseph  I  with  sufficient 
promptness,  ordered  Almada  to  concoct  a  Brief,  in  con- 
formity with  his  views,  and  to  forward  it  to  him  without 
delciy.  The  Ambassador  was  not  too  delicate  to  perform 
this  service  for  Pombal.  He  boldly  composed  a  Brief,  in 
which  he  made  Pope  Clement  XIII  fully  approve  the  con- 
duct and  views  of  the  Portuguese  Minister,  pointed  out  the 
use  that  was  to  be  made  of  the  confiscated  property  of 
the  society,  and  empowered  him  to  punish  with  death  all 
those  whom  he  should  find  guilty. 

Pombal  had  threatened  to  estra-nge  Portugal  from  its 
allegiance  to  the  Holy  See.  Belying  upon  this  menace, 
and  being  fully  persuaded  that  Clement  XIII  would  sub- 
mit to  any  sacrifice  to  prevent  such  a  schism,  he  did  not 
delay  the  publication  of  the  forged  Brief,  feeling  assured 
that  the  Portuguese  Jesuits,  having  the  Pope  against  them, 
would  have  no  one  for  them.  Meanwhile,  the  authentic 
Brief  arrived  at  Lisbon,  and  was  far  from  resembling  that 
which  the  diabolical  hatred  of  the  Minister  had  invented. 
The  Pope  essayed  to  calm  the  anger  of  the  monarch  and 
his  Minister.  He  desired  that  the  guilt  of  the  Fathers 
should  be  proven  ;  that  the  innocent  should  not  sufi"er  for 
the  guilty,  should  there,  in  fact,  be  any  such  among  them, 
and  he  demanded  justice  for  all. 

Pombal  did  not  like  counsel;  he  generally  punished 
those  who  ventured  to  oSer  it.  He  could  not  tolerate 
such  as  contradicted  him;  his  custom  was  to  send  them  to 
prison  and  confiscate  their  property.  As  for  those  who 
dared  for  a  moment  to  oppose  him,  they  were  consigned 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER  LORENZO   RxCCI.  117 

to  the  scajffold.  Being  unable  to  apply  any  one  of  these 
methods  to  the  Sovereign  PontifF,  who  continued  his  en- 
treaties in  favor  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  he  cleared  his 
dungeons  of  all  his  Jesuit  prisoners,  and  sent  them  to  the 
Pope.  On  the  1st  of  September,  1759,  a  first  installment 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  Jesuits  was  shipped  on 
board  a  merchantman  entirely  too  small  for  such  a  num- 
ber of  passengers,  and  almost  destitute  of  any  kind  of 
provisions — their  breviary  and  their  crucifix  being  their 
only  possessions,  their  only  resource  during  the  voyage. 
But  the  Portuguese  did  not  hesitate  to  incur  the  anger  of 
the  Minister  by  giving  succor  to  the  innocent  victims  of 
his  impiety.  They  supplied  the  vessel  with  provisions  as 
well  as  they  could,  and  the  most  afiecting  sympathy  proved 
to  the  good  Fathers  that  their  friends  were  more  numer- 
ous than  their  enemies,  and  that  they  had  but  to  say  the 
word,  to  witness  a  rising  in  their  favor. 

This  single  word,  this  permission,  which  would  have 
caused  the  cruel  and  detested  Pombal  to  be  stoned  to 
death,  the  Jesuits  would  not  pronounce.  Up  to  the  very 
last  moment,  they  exerted  their  influence,  by  word  and  ex- 
ample, to  induce  the  people  to  submit  to  authority.  They 
departed,  leaving  the  deepest  sorrow  in  those  souls  of 
W'hich  they  had  so  long  been  the  guides,  the  supporters, 
the  consolers,  and  Fathers.  They  were  dragged  from  their 
country,  their  families,  their  pupils;  they  were  stripped 
of  their  property ;  they  were  accused  of  the  blackest 
crimes,  and  not  an  expression  of  regret  fell  from  their 
lips,  not  a  sigh  from  their  hearts.  They  blessed  their 
friends,  they  prayed  for  their  enemies,  and  placed  their 
whole  dependence  upon  Providence  alone. 

After  their  departure,  the  Marquis  de  Pombal  strove  to 
induce  the  novices,  and  the  Fathers  who  had  not  yet  made 
the  four  vows,  to  abandon  a  society  which  was  now  ban- 
ished from  Portugal.     Cardinal  Saldanha  offered  to  relieve 
47* 


118  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESJS. 

the  latter  from  their  obligations  by  virtue  of  a  self-as- 
sumed power.  But  promises  and  threats  were  lavished  in 
vain.  A  few  of  the  young  novices  allowed  themselves  to 
be  persuaded,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  faithful,  whose 
respect  they  thus  forfeited.  Father  Joseph  Carvalho,  a 
relative  of  the  Minister,  heroically  resisted,  and  sustained 
the  courage  and  fortitude  of  all  the  young  Jesuits  who 
were  not  yet  professed,  and  whom  the  emissaries  of  the 
Minister  sought  to  inveigle.  They  were  all  east  into 
prison.  The  same  course  was  pursued  in  the  foreign  mis- 
sions. In  America,  Africa,  and  Asia,  wherever  there  were 
Portuguese  missions,  the  Fathers  were  seized  and  crowded 
on  board  ship.  Some  were  consigned  to  Lisbon,  others  to 
Goa,  and  in  the  latter  city  they  were  reshipped  on  board 
the  first  vessel  in  port,  regardless  of  its  destination. 
Those  who  reached  Lisbon  were  immediately  divided  into 
two  classes — one  of  Portuguese,  the  other  of  foreigners. 
It  was  possible  that  the  former  might  call  forth  indigna- 
tion against  the  Minister,  on  the  part  of  their  families, 
and  they  were,  therefore,  sent  to  the  Pope.  The  latter 
were  imprisoned. 

On  the  24th  of  October,  the  first  batch  of  banished 
prisoners  arrived  at  the  port  of  Civita  Vecchia.  The 
civil  authorities  and  clergy,  the  religious  orders,  nobility, 
and  people,  flocked,  with  marked  reverence,  around  the 
martyr  apostles,  and  vied  with  each  other  in  their  offers 
of  hospitality. 

The  good  Fathers  divided  themselves  amons:  those  who 
disputed  the  honor  of  entertaining  them.  The  Domini- 
cans, who  received  them  in  their  convent,  had  a  marble 
slab  engraved,  commemorative  of  their  banishment  and  of 
their  arrival  at  Civita  Vecchia. 

Soon,  other  convoys  succeeded.  All  were  welcomed 
with  the  same  respect  and  veneration  in  the  ports  where 
they  were  compelled  to  touch,  and,  on  arriving  in  Rome, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  119 

were  received  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  with  a  tenderness 
vrhieh  tended  to  nssuage  their  grief.  When  Ponib;il  thus 
sent  to  Rome  this  great  number  of  religious,  he  supposed 
they  would  become  a  burden  to  the  Pope,  who,  he  hoped, 
would  then  repent  of  the  protection  which  he  had  afforded 
the  Society  of  Jesus.  In  this  he  was  disappointed.  His 
Ambassador  wrote  to  him  that  the  Jesuits  who  had  been 
banished  from  Portugal  were  the  objects  of  general  sym- 
pathy and  admiration. 

The  Portuguese  Minister  was  alarmed  at  the  homage 
shown  to  his  victims,  but  he  received  still  more  humilia- 
tins:  intelligence.  The  Brief  which  he  had  had  the  effront- 
ery  to  put  forth,  ordering  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  was 
declared  by  the  Roman  court  to  be  a  forgery,  and  was 
burned  by  the  public  executioner  both  in  Rome  and  in 
Spain.  Don  Carvalho  felt  that  he  was  the  subject  of  gen- 
eral malediction,  but,  thinking  that  he  had  not  yet  done 
enough  to  merit  it,  he  added  to  his  innumerable  crimes 
one  still  more  horrible. 

Father  Gabriel  de  Malagrida,  an  Italian,  had  passed  a 
great  portion  of  his  life  in  the  Brazilian  missions.     Being 
recalled  to  Portugal,  he  had  there  grown  old  in  the  exer- 
cise of  every  apostolical  virtue,  the  object  of  general  ven- 
eration, equally  beloved  and    blessed  by  great  and  small, 
rich  and  poor ;  he  was  the  father  and  the  friend  of  all.    Ar- 
rested at  the  age  of  sixty-nine  years,  on  the  charge  of  be- 
ing an  accomplice  in  the  attempt  upon  the  King's  life — 
in  reality  because  he  was  a  Jesuit,  and  esteemed  by  the 
Tavoras — the  holy  religious  had  for  three  years  languished 
in   prison,  when   the   Marquis  de  Pombal   summoned  him 
before  the   Inquisition,  for  having  composed  books   con- 
taining prophecies  and  accounts  of  visions.     The  manu- 
scripts remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Minister,  and  were  not 
presented  to  the  judges  who  had  been  called  upon  to  ad- 
judicate in  the  matter.     One  of  the  King's  brothers  wa3 


120  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Grand  Inquisitor.  He  declined  to  decide  upon  a  work  un- 
less he  had  first  examined  it.  Pombal  was  bent  on  carry- 
ing his  point;  so  he  dismissed  the  prince,  and  conferred 
the  dignity  of  Grand  Inquisitor  upon  his  own  brother, 
Don  Paul  de  Carvalho  Mendoza,  who  had  so  ably  sec- 
onded him  in  his  persecutions  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  Bra- 
zils. A  new  tribunal  was  formed,  to  suit  the  views  of  the 
two  Carvalhos.  This  tribunal  could  only  be  constituted 
by  the  Pope;  but  the  Minister  decreed  that  its  decisions 
should  be  held  valid,  and  its  judgments  executed,  without 
this  formality.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  venerable 
Father  Malagrida  was  found  guilty  of  blasphemy  and 
heresy,  and,  as  such,  condemned  to  be  degraded  from  the 
priesthood,  and  handed  over  to  the  secular  authority  to 
be  burned  alive.  On  the  21st  of  September,  1761,  h? 
courageously  suffered  at  the  stake,  and  heaven  received 
his  spirit. 

Two  hundred  and  twenty-one  Jesuits  still  remained  ia 
the  prisons  of  Pombal.  One  of  these.  Father  Lawrence 
Kaulen,  has  revealed  to  us  some  of  the  tortures  which  they 
there  endured  with  so  much  patience  and  courage.  The 
Queen  of  France,  Marie  Leczinska,  had,  through  the  me- 
dium of  the  Marquis  de  Saint  Priest,  Ambassador  of  Louis 
XV  to  the  court  of  Portugal,  demanded  the  liberation  of 
the  three  French  Jesuits  who  were  among  the  above- 
named  prisoners.  The  Minister  was  constrained  to  give 
them  up,  and,  in  1766,  Fathers  du  Gad  and  de  Ranceau, 
as  well  as  Brother  Delsart,  were  restored  to  liberty. 
Father  Kaulen  availed  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  pen. 
some  most  affecting  lines  to  the  Provincial  of  the  Lower 
lihine,  describing  to  him  the  sufferings  of  their  impris- 
onment, so  as  to  insure  an  increase  of  prayers  in  their  be 
half. 

Pombal  crowned   the  list   of  the   enormities  which  we 
have  just  related  by  forcing  the  daughter  of  the  Marquia 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RKXI.     12l 

of  Tavora  into  a  marriage  with  his  son!  Was  net  this 
climax  of  his  cruelties  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  innocence 
of  his  victims? 

II. 

"  On  the  5tli  of  July,  1762,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,"  says 
Father  Louis  Du  Gad  =•'  in  his  narrative,  "  twenty-four  Jesuits  were 
arrested  by  the  order  of  Poinbal,  namely :  thirteen  of  the  Vice 
Province  of  China,  who  lived  at  the  house  of  St.  Joseph;  eight  of 
the  Province  of  Japan,  residing  at  the  College  of  St.  Paul,  and 
three  of  the  French  mission,  who  lived  in  the  same  college.  Some 
were  taken  to  the  Dominicans,  the  others  to  the  Franciscans. 
This  separation  was  not  of  long  continuance.  In  a  few  days,  we 
were  all  reassembled  in  the  college,  where  the  store-rooms  were 
assigned  for  our  dwelling.  These  were  four  small  rooms,  one  of 
which  served  both  as  chapel  and  refectory.  All  communication 
with  the  exterior  was  prohibited;  the  doors  and  windows  were  se- 
cured by  iron  bars,  and,  as  a  still  greater  precaution,  sentinels 
guarded  them  day  and  night,  so  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of 
any  one  speaking  with  us,  much  less  of  conveying  to  us  any  arti- 
cle of  comfort  or  relief.  Even  the  sentinels  were  strictly  enjoined 
not  to  give  us  any  information  of  what  was  transpiring  in  the 
town.  It  was  not  lorj^  before  the  sale  of  our  property  was 
publicly  announced,  preceded  by  the  reading  of  seven  or  eight 
decrees,  some  of  which  provided  that  our  names  should  be  igno- 
miniously  torn  to  pieces  in  the  presence  of  the  Christians  and 
Idolaters,  who  had  thronged  to  the  spot.  The  Archbishop  of 
Cranganor  and  the  Bishop  of  Cochin  were  proclaimed  rebels  (both 
were  Jesuits),  because  they  had  refused  to  abandon  the  missions  of 
Malabar.  All  those  who  had  any  thing  belonging  to  the  Jesuits 
were  ordered  to  declare  its  value  within  twenty-four  hours,  under 
pain  of  death;  and  whoever  publicly  manifested  any  esteem  for 
them,  or  ventured  to  show  them  any  compassion,  was  threatened 
with  a  like  punishment,  no  matter  how  great  the  loss  which  he 
suffered  in  their  ruin.  Two  aged  women,  who  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  going  daily  to  the  gates  of  our  college  to  receive  a  por- 
tion of  rice  for  their  support,  not  finding  the  same  charity  at  the 
door  of   any   rich   man,  simply  exclaimed,  'If  the  house  of  the 

*  Superior  of  the  Missions  of  China,  residing  at  Macao. 


122  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Jesuits  still  existed,  we  should  not  be  reduced  .to  starve.'  TLey 
were  overheard,  accused,  and  sent  to  prison,  where  they  had  to 
pay  for  their  too  great  sincerity. 

"In  the  beginning  of  September,  the  property  of  the  Vice  Prov- 
ince of  Japan  and  of  the  French  mission  was  sold  at  auction,  in 
front  of  the  church.  That  belonging  to  the  Vice  Province  of  China 
was  also  sold  at  the  same  time,  but  at  some  distance  from  the  church. 
We  must  not  omit  to  state  here,  that  he  who  presided  at  the  confis- 
cation of  the  property,  had  promised  the  Procurator  of  the  French 
mission  that  they  would  set  aside  the  amount  usually  sent  to  the 
missionaries,  and  which  they  were  about  to  forward  at  the  time  of 
the  seizure.  Such  were  the  promises  made ;  but  these  same  promises 
were  no  longer  remembered,  until  a  petition  was  presented  to  the 
Governor  and  to  the  Judges,  in  which  Father  de  Neuvialle,  Father 
de  Boussel,  and  myself  humbly  explained  that  whatever  the  French 
mission  possessed  in  that  country  was  due  to  the  liberality  of  Louis 
XIV;  that  the  mission  had  nothing  in  common  with  the  other  Prov- 
inces; that  each  one  had  its  respective  laws,  superiors,  and  houses; 
that  the  whole  was  under  the  protection  of  His  Most  Christian 
Majesty,  and  that  if  we  happened  to  be  at  Macao,  it  was  solely  in 
consequence  of  the  persecution  of  1733,  during  which  we  had  been 
compelled  to  leave  Canton;  that  the  Fathers  of  the  College  of  St. 
Paul  had  been  kind  enough  to  receive  the  exiles,  without,  how- 
ever, being  put  to  any  expense,  since  we  paid  our  own  board;  that, 
moreover,  as  might  be  seen  in  the  archives  of  Goa  and  at  Macao, 
His  Most  Faithful  Majesty,  Don  John  V,  had  allowed  the  French 
to  have  a  residence  at  Macao,  and  to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  their 
missions;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  this,  we  asked  only  that 
to  which  we  were  entitled  by  the  law  of  nations,  namely,  to  leave 
Macao,  with  all  that  belonged  to  us,  and  go  to  whatever  place  we 
should  deem  most  advantageous  for  the  missions  of  His  Most 
Christian  Majesty.  To  this  just  demand,  which  met  with  general 
approval  at  Macao,  we  received  no  response,  and  its  only  result 
was,  that,  three  or  four  days  after,  the  officer  who  had  us  in  charge 
deprived  us  of  writing  materials. 

"On  the  5th  of  November,  we  were  placed  on  board  ship,  by 
moonlight,  being  marched  to  the  place  of  embarkation  between 
two  files  of  soldiers,  besides  an  officer  at  the  side  of  each,  in  case 
any  attempt  should  be  made  to  escape. 

"It  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  scrupulosity  of  the  Governor  in 
his  precautions  for  our  safe  conveyance  to  Goa;  and,  as  if  it  did 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  123 

not  suffice  to  have  placed  the  soldiers  at  every  point  of  egress 
from  the  vessel  on  which  we  were,  he  ordered  that  every  aperture, 
by  which  even  the  light  of  day  could  shine  upon  us,  should  be 
closed,  with  the  exception  of  one,  which  was  left  open  to  enable 
us  to  read  our  office. 

"It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  a  few  days  after  our  embarka- 
tion, although  the  weather  was  cool,  we  found  ourselves  so  tor- 
mented with  vermin  that  repose  was  quite  out  of  the  question. 
Nevertheless,  we  spent  a  month  or  two  in  this  condition,  until  the 
captain,  at  our  request,  allowed  six  of  us  to  go  on  deck  in  the 
morning,  and  a  like  number  in  the  afternoon,  in  order  that  we 
might  breathe  the  fresh  air  for  an  hour  or  two,  but  on  condition 
that,  if  any  one  approached  our  vessel,  we  were  immediately  to 
go  below.  We  had  spent  four  months  thus,  part  of  the  time  on 
the  xojsige,  and  the  rest  in  the  different  harbors  at  which  we 
touched.  It  was  in  the  port  of  Talichery,  on  the  coast  of  Mala- 
bar, that  Father  Louis  de  Figuera,  Rector  of  the  College  of  St. 
Josepli  at  Macao,  ended  his  earthly  career,  after  an  illness  of 
thirty-eight  days,  deprived  of  all  human  aid.  They  were  un- 
willing, even,  that  he  should  be  interred  in  a  church  which  was 
near  to  where  we  lay,^  a  favor  which  the  English,  who  were  in 
possession  of  the  port,  had  willingly  granted.  We  had  a  nar- 
row escape  from  being  captured  by  pirates,  and  the  reason  they 
did  not  take  us  was,  that  they  cared  little  for  a  vessel  which,  to 
all  appearance,  was  freighted  only  with  human  beings.  We  had 
already  passed  through  half  of  Lent  in  the  greatest  scarcity,  as 
the  provisions  shipped  at  Macao,  or  during  the  voyage,  had  run 
out,  when  we  fell  in  with  a  frigate  from  Goa,  which  took  us  on 
board.  The  captain,  by  his  kindness  and  liberality,  caused  us, 
for  a  time,  to  forget  our  past  sufferings. 

"We  at  length  reached  Goa,  on  the  22d  of  March,  after  a  voy- 
age of  fifteen  days  on  board  the  frigate.  Two  days  after  our  ar- 
rival, we  went  ashore,  and  were  conducted  to  Fort  Mormogam, 
about  three  leagues  from  Goa.  This  place  afforded  us  true  conso- 
lation, for  it  is  on  that  spot  that  St.  Francis  Xavier  is  said  to  have 
first  landed,  in  proceeding  to  the  Indies.  His  feast  is  there  sol- 
emnly kept  every  year,  in  commemoration  of  a  signal  grace  shown 
to  a  soldier  during  the  attack  upon  that  place  by  the  Dutch  As 
the  latter  were  endeavoring  to  force  an  entrance,  two  balls  were 
fired  against  the  door,  which,  upon  invoking  St.  Francis  Xavier, 
recoiled,  leaving  only  their  imprint  as  a  lasting  monument  of  the 


124  HISTORY   OP   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

favor.  It  was  in  this  chapel,  which  is  dedicated  to  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  that  we  sought,  in  the  celebration  of  the  Divine  mysteries, 
and  in  assiduously  performing  the  exercises  of  a  religious  life,  a 
solace  for  our  grief,  and  an  indemnity  for  being  unable  to  visit 
the  tomb  of  the  apostle,  the  sight  of  which  would  not  have  been 
less  eflBcacious  in  teaching  us  to  be  patient  in  the  tribulations  of 
captivity,  than  it  had  been  in  inspiring  the  most  indefatigable 
zeal  for  the  salvation  of  souls. 

"After  passing  a  year  in  this  way,  and  while  some  of  us  were 
indisposed,  and  one  in  particular,  who  had  received  the  last  sac- 
raments, was  said  to  be  in  danger  of  death,  we  were  compelled  to 
reembark,  and  that  in  the  night,  because  they  feared  the  approach 
of  an  idolatrous  Rajah,  whose  victorious  army  menaced  Goa.  Our 
sufferings  were  great,  both  that  night  and  the  following  day.  At 
length,  on  the  4th  of  February,  we  started  on  a  fresh  voyage, 
which  proved  even  worse  than  the  first.  We  were,  however,  for- 
tunate enough  to  meet  with  a  captain  who  was  truly  pious,  and 
possessed  of  a  generous  soul.  He  was  ever  ready  to  do  for  us  that 
which  was  not  contrary  to  the  strict  orders  which  he  had  received 
from  his  court.  In  fact,  perceiving,  from  the  very  first  day  of  the 
voyage,  that,  in  the  portion  of  the  vessel  in  which  we  were  placed, 
there  was  no  convenience  for  the  celebration  of  the  holy  sacrifice, 
he  assigned  to  us  a  space  where,  on  days  of  obligation,  one  or 
two  might  say  mass.  Very  different  was  he,  in  this  respect,  from 
the  captain  of  the  vessel  which  bore  us  from  Macao  to  Goa,  who, 
indeed,  dispensed  us  from  saying  mass  at  all,  not  permitting  us 
even  to  assist  at  the  mass  which  one  of  us  was  called  upon  to  cel- 
ebrate for  the  cri^w,  and  who,  when  we  were  allowed  to  offer  up 
the  holy  sacrifice,  strictly  forbade  any  one  else  to  be  present,  and 
went  so  far  as  to  punish  a  soldier  severely  who  guarded  our  door, 
because,  in  order  to  have  part  in  the  holy  exercise,  he  had  ad- 
vanced a  few  steps  into  the  place  in  which  we  were  confined.  We 
were  not  long  in  discovering  what  tempests,  salt  provisions,  and 
very  little  of  them,  combined  with  the  deleterious  atmosphere  of 
the  African  coast,  could  accomplish.  A  great  number  became  ill, 
and  four  died.  The  first  was  Father  de  Neuvialle,  a  Frenchman, 
aged  sixty-nine.  His  death  was  caused  by  the  fatigues  and  mis- 
eries which  he  had  so  patiently  borne.  He  was  so  feeble  that,  be- 
ing unable  to  stand,  the  last  sacraments  were  administered  to  him, 
and  he  expired  on  the  30th  of  April,  at  the  moment  that  the  viati- 
cum was  being  administered  to  another  by  his  side.     Eight  days 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  125 

after,  Father  Boussel  died.  He  was  the  Procurator  of  the  French 
mission  in  China,  and  was  sixty-five  years  of  age,  but  was  in 
such  a  bad  state  of  health  that  his  life  was  only  preserved  by  dint 
of  the  greatest  care.  He  accepted  the  summons  to  another  world 
with  the  greatest  resignation.  Next  in  turn  was  Father  Emmanuel 
Gonzales,  a  Portuguese,  who  was  a  little  over  fifty  years  old,  and 
to  us  a  model  of  patience,  and  who  died  a  most  edifying  death, 
having  previously  received  the  last  rites  of  the  Church  on  the 
11th  of  May.  Lastly,  we  lost  Father  Simoens,  also  a  Portuguese, 
who  was  seventy-five  years  of  age.  His  death  occurred  on  the 
16th  of  the  same  month,  the  very  day  of  our  arrival  at  the  prison 
assigned  to  us  at  All-Saints  Bay. 

"  We  cast  anchor  in  the  bay,  otherwise  called  St.  Saviour,  the 
metropolis  of  the  Brazils,  on  the  15th  of  May.  It  was  night  when  we 
landed,  and  we  were  imprisoned  in  one  of  our  own  houses,  where 
our  members  were  formerly  wont  to  perform  the  spiritual  exer- 
cises of  St.  Ignatius.  There,  thanks  to  the  care  we  received,  we 
speedily  recovered  from  the  eflFects  of  our  sufferings  at  sea,  and 
found  ourselves  able  to  undertake  the  remainder  of  the  journey, 
which  was  much  longer  than  the  first  portion.  We  were  not  des- 
tined to  accomplish  it  without  undergoing  much  suffering.  The 
three  Governors,  of  which  the  Bishop  is  the  chief,  took  upon  them- 
selves to  afllict  us  with  one  of  a  new  character.  For  eight  days 
they  retained  our  luggage,  which  they  examined  again  and 
again  with  the  greatest  scrutiny.  What  was  our  astonishment 
when  it  was  finally  restored,  to  find  that  they  had  robbed  us  of  the 
only  consolation  we  had  in  our  trials  and  hardships — our  books ; 
and,  what  will  scarcely  be  believed,  they  pertinaciously  refused  to 
return  two  copies  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  that  we  urgently  de- 
manded of  them.  Nor  was  it  without  much  diflSculty  that  they,  at 
last,  were  persuaded  to  leave  us  our  breviaries.  That  which  is 
much  more  singular,  and  which  no  one  could  have  imagined,  was 
that  they  took  down  in  writing  a  minute  description  of. our  per- 
{;Dns.  Each  one,  in  the  presence  of  the  judge,  had  to  declare  his 
name,  his  country,  the  period  at  which  he  had  come  to  the  mission, 
and  the  different  places  at  which  he  had  been  stationed.  They 
wrote  down  our  exact  height,  features,  the  color  of  our  hair  and 
beard ;  in  a  word,  a  full  portrait.  And,  lest  they  might  have  been 
mistaken,  we  were  summoned  to  appear  daily  before  the  same 
judge  and  notarj'^,  in  order  to  compare  and  verify  the  descriptions^ 

"Our  next  embarkation  took  place  on  the  loth  of  July,  the  diiy 
■Ad 


126  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

on  which  the  society  commemorates  the  Feast  of  the  Forty  Martyrs 
of  Brazil. 

"At  last,  after  twenty-seven  months  of  painful  captivity,  after 
having  traversed  the  world  from  East  to  West,  and  after  having  been 
exhibited  in  the  most  commercial  ports  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  America, 
every-where  being  subject  to  opprobrium  and  contempt,  we  arrived 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus,  near  Lisbon,  on  the  16th  of  October, 
1764,  where  we  cast  anchor.  The  whole  of  the  17th  passed  without 
our  heai'ing  any  thing  as  to  our  ultimate  fate.  The  following  day, 
however,  revealed  it  to  us.  At  about  an  hour  before  the  close  of 
day,  several  persons  came  on  board  our  vessel,  and,  toward  mid- 
night, ordered  us  all  on  deck.  They  summoned  each  one  of  us  by 
name,  and,  as  there  were  nineteen  of  us,  they  divided  us  into  four 
parties,  and  placed  us  on  board  as  many  long-boats.  "We  thus 
proceeded  up  the  river  for  four  leagues,  when  we  were  landed  and 
placed  in  wagons;  and  it  was  still  dark  when  we  arrived  at  Fort 
St.  Julian,  where  we  were  allowed  only  one  hour's  rest,  although 
we  all  had  the  appearance  of  having  risen  from  our  graves.  At 
the  expiration  of  the  hour,  we  were  confined  in  dungeons.  They 
first  assigned  to  two  of  our  Brothers,  who  were  vei'y  ill — one  was 
over  seventy  years  of  age  and  was  blind — a  prison,  or  compart- 
ment, a  little  less  inconvenient  and  larger  than  the  others.  They 
gave  them,  as  companions,  two  priests,  whose  duty  it  was  to  at- 
tend to  them.  The  remainder  were  distributed,  two  by  two,  in 
different  cells.  All  this  was  carried  out  in  profound  silence,  not 
a  single  word  being  uttered  by  any  one.  These  prisons  in  which 
we  are  incarcerated  are  a  species  of  catacomb,  the  sides  of  which 
are  arched,  and  formed  into  separate  apartments  by  walls  at  cer- 
tain distances,  the  compartments  not  being  equal  in  size.  The 
dungeon  in  which  I  am  confined,  and  which  I  have  occasionally 
measured,  is  twenty  palmes'^  loiig?  fcy  thirteen  wide,  and  thirty 
high,  and  was  under  a  street.  To  dispel  the  obscurity  of  this  sub- 
terranean abode,  we  were  accorded  a  lamp,  by  the  light  of  which 
we  read  our  office  and  performed  our  other  duties.  There  were 
no  apertures  for  light,  save  a  vent-hole,  or  grating,  two  palmes 
long,  looking  toward  the  street,  which,  hoAvever,  was  so  covered 
by  boards  as  to  impede  the  ingress  of  fresh  air.  In  each  of  these 
dungeons  there  was  an  elevation  of  from  three  to  four  palmes 
high,  formed  of  planks.     It  was  on  this  that  my  companions  and 

*  A  palme — palme  is  a  measure  of  four  inches. — Tb. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICOI.  127 

myself  deposited  our  scanty  baggage  and  miserable  beds.  The 
liumidity  of  the  place  induced  our  jailors,  after  a  few  months,  to 
afford  us  some  extra  covering.  It  would  be  difficult  to  believe 
how  much  we  suffered  in  wet  weather,  in  consequence  of  the 
water,  which  percolated  through  and  trickled  down  the  walls, 
and  made  every  thing  mouldy  and  rotten.  The  space  that  re- 
mained to  us  for  exercise  was  not  more  than  five  feet.  We  were 
inclosed  by  two  strong  doors,  secured  by  bolts.  These  doors  were 
opened  tvi-ice  a  day,  morning  and  evening,  just  long  enough  to 
pass  in  our  food  and  receive  back  the  empty  dishes.  The  food 
was  plain  and  scanty,  sufficient  to  sustain  a  man  in  tolerable 
health,  but  totally  inadequate  to  the  restoration  of  the  sick. 
Nothing  could  be  more  wretched  than  the  condition  of  those  who 
were  afflicted  with  infirmities.  When  the  surgeon  was  called  in, 
we  might  expect,  through  his  tardiness,  to  find  the  malady  in- 
crease, or,  through  his  ignorance,  to  see  the  patient  die.  The 
harshness  of  the  oflficer  who  had  charge  of  us  was  such  that  ho 
would  not  permit  any  thing  to  be  brought  to  the  sick  at  any  other 
time  than  that  fixed  for  the  regular  supply  of  food,  as  was  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  one  of  our  number,  at  the  hour  of  his  death, 
to  whom,  instead  of  a  little  beef  tea,  which  he  craved,  they  gavo 
two  raw  eggs,  the  officer  informing  us  that  we  could  cook  them 
over  the  lamps.  Our  clothing,  having  been  a  hundred  times  re- 
paired, was  soon  in  tatters,  and  they  never  saw  the  necessity  of 
replacing  it  with  other  garments.  All  that  we  suffered  during  the 
severe  season,  failed  to  excite  the  least  compassion  in  the  cruel 
bosom  of  him  who  had  us  in  charge.  Instead  of  procuring  for  us 
clothing  which  was  absolutely  necessary,  he  was  prompted  by  av- 
arice to  turn  to  his  own  pecuniary  profit  the  amount  allotted  for 
that  purpose  by  the  court.  They  even  went  so  far  as  to  retain  the 
small  sum  which  had  been  assigned  for  a  barber  to  cut  our  hair 
and  shave  our  beards. 

"No  matter  what  our  suff'erings  were  for  the  want  of  common 
necessaries,  they  were  borne  with  patience;  but  thai  which  grieved 
us  most  of  all,  was  our  being  deprived  of  the  sacraments.  Who 
could  have  believed  that  in  a  Christian  country,  governed  by  min- 
isters who  made  pretensions  to  piety,  priests  and  religious,  without 
being  convicted  of  any  crime,  and  who  had  passed  their  lives  in 
doing  good — some  in  the  fatigues  of  the  missions,  with  great  success; 
others,  who  had  suffered  shipwreck,  imprisonment,  and  even  tor- 
tures for  professing  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom,  more  than  once,  induce- 


128  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ments  had  been  held  out,  if  they  would  only  renounce  iheit 
profession — that  such  men,  as  though  they  were  so  many  sacri- 
legious sinners,  should  be  deprived  of  the  heavenly  bread  of  the 
Eucharist!  And,  it  is  with  dismay  that  I  record  it,  even  at  Easter, 
that  they  were  never  permitted  to  celebrate  or  to  assist  at  the  holy 
sacrifice;  that  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  even  the  dy- 
ing could,  in  their  agony,  have  the  consolation  of  the  last  sacra- 
ments ;  that  it  sometimes  happened  that  such  obstacles  were  thrown 
in  the  way,  that  one  of  our  number  died  without  this  heavenly 
support,  through  the  relentless  tyranny  of  the  keeper  of  our  prison ! 
And,  not  satisfied  with  having  precluded  us  from  our  communica- 
tion with  the  living,  they  refused  us  access  to  the  pallets  of  our 
dying  brethren — a  last  prayer  beside  their  dead  forms!  Nothing 
was  omitted  that  could  augment  our  siiiferings.  We  had  neither 
books  nor  papers,  or  if  we  occasionally  procured  some,  it  was  with 
the  greatest  difiiculty.  We  were  condemned  to  lead  the  life  of 
brutes. 

"  As  regards  the  number  of  prisoners,  in  addition  to  the  eighteen 
to  whom  I  have  referred,  and  a  secular,  who  was  as  distinguished 
for  his  great  wealth,  as  he  was  for  his  piety  and  nobleness  of  soul, 
we  found  seventy  other  Jesuits  from  various  parts  of  the  world; 
namely,  fifteen  Italians,  thirteen  Germans,  two  Flemings,  two  Span- 
iards, one  Englishman,  and  a  native  of  Tonquin.  The  rest  were 
Portuguese.  One  of  them  had  already  suffered  a  nine-years  im- 
prisonment; fifteen  had  been  incarcerated  for  seven  years;  the  re- 
mainder had  reached  the  fifth  or  sixth  year  of  their  captivity, 
which  had  commenced  for  some  in  Africa,  for  some  in  Asia,  and 
for  others  in  America.  Besides  the  eight  Procurators  of  the  mis- 
sions, were  to  be  seen  the  Father  Provincial,  a  Professor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Evora,  and  another  who  had  filled  one  of  the  chairs  at 
Coimbra  for  nineteen  years,  and  subsequently  became  superior  of 
various  colleges.  We  had,  also.  Father  Alessandra,  who  had  been 
represented  in  the  libels  as  one  of  the  three  who  had  attempted 
the  life  of  the  King,  and  who  was  not  aware  of  the  charge  until 
he  had  been  in  prison  for  eight  years,  and  then  heai"d  it  quite  ac- 
cidentally. Among  these  heroes  of  patience,  some  were  eighty 
years  old,  some  seventy,  others  approaching  sixty,  the  rest  less 
aged.  Several  were  afflicted  with  grave  infirmities — some  being 
blind,  others  deaf,  while  some  suffered  from  the  gout;  a  few  had  be- 
come childish,  and  many  were  consumptive.  In  fine,  all  presented 
Buch  an  abject  appearance  as  to  call  forth  the  remark  fi'om  even 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  129 

the  very  guards,  that  it  was  almost  a  miracle  that  they  should  con. 
tiuue  to  live  at  all.  And  yet,  in  the  midst  of  so  much  misery,  and 
during  the  space  of  eight  years,  only  twelve  died — our  Lord,  in 
His  goodness,  being  pleased  to  accord  them  in  this  life  a  foretaste 
of  tlie  consolations  which  lie  promises  in  the  next  to  those  who  suf- 
fer for  justice  sake.^'* 

Ill 

FATHER  PRZIKWILL,   A  PRISONER  IX  FORT  ST.  JULIAN,  TO  THE  FATHER 

PROVINCIAL    OF    UOIIEMIA. 

"Reverend  Father:  The  peace  of  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you! 
At  the  time  of  our  sudden  and  unexpected  seizure  and  removal 
from  Goa,  I  found,  thanks  to  Divine  Providence,  a  favorable  op- 
portunity of  writing  to  the  Reverend  Father  Balthasar  Lidner, 
Assistant  at  Rome.  I  begged  of  him  to  forward  you  my  letter,  iu 
order  that  you  might  have  the  goodness  to  communicate  its  con- 
tents to  our  beloved  province  of  Bohemia.  The  same  Providence 
now  furnishes  me  with  the  means  of  writing  directly  to  you,  through 
one  of  my  fellow-prisoners.  It  is  one  of  our  Brothers,  who  has  just 
been  informed  that  the  French  Ambassador  has  obtained  his  release, 
he  being  a  subject  of  his  master,  the  King,  having  been  born  in 
French  Flanders.  Our  good  Lord  had  directed  his  steps  to  Goa,  a 
few  years  prior  to  the  commencement  of  our  troubles,  and  he  had 
made  his  vows.  This  opportunity  is  the  more  gratifying,  as  it  af- 
foi'ds  me  time  wherein  to  write,  and  furnishes  me  with  the  means 
of  eluding  the  unceasing  vigilance  of  our  keepers. 

*'  In  the  first  place,  I  would  beg  to  be  remembered  in  your  holy 
sacrifices  and  prayers,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  other  members  of 
our  province,  whom  I  have  never  forgotten  at  the  altar.  It  is  now 
nearly  six  yeai's  since  we  have  had  the  happiness  of  celebrating,  or 
even  hearing  mass.  In  this  letter,  I  will  only  speak  of  our  present 
condition,  without  referring  to  the  past;  fori  am  limited  in  paper, 
as  in  many  other  things. 

"  We  embarked  at  Goa,  in  1761,  and  were  five  months  at  sea. 
During  this  painful  and  sorrowful  voyage,  we  lost,  successively, 
twenty-three  of  our  companions.  Their  heroism  and  resignation, 
their  love  of  God  and  their  confidence,  made  us  look  upon  their 
death  less  as  a  cause  of  regi'et,  than  a  matter  of  envy.  At  length, 
on  the  20th  of  May,  the  eve  of  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  we 

*  Published,  for  the  first  time,  by  the  Reverend  Father  de  Ravig- 
nan,  inClement  XIII  et  Clement  XIV. 
48* 


130  HISTORY  OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus.  There  they  detained  us  foi 
three  daj'S,  and,  on  the  fourth,  commenced  sending  ashore  some 
of  our  Portuguese  Fathers,  with  some  passengers,  and  such  ot  us 
as  were  to  be  reshipped.  Those  who  Avere  tlnw  taken  numbered 
twenty-eight,  so  that  there  remained  only  one  hundred  and  four 
of  us.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  left  some  in  Asia, 
as,  in  consequence  of  their  being  distributed  at  a  distance,  among 
the  various  tribes  of  savages,  it  was  impossible  for  PombaVs  emis- 
saries to  seize  them  in  time  for  our  embarkation.  At  last  our 
turn  came,  and  we  were  sent  ashore.  The  port,  which  is,  at  all 
times,  a  very  busy  one,  and  much  frequented,  was,  at  the  moment, 
crowded  with  spectators,  who  had  thronged  to  the  spot  to  get  a 
sight  of  us.  We  were  received  by  a  double  guard,  who  conducted 
us  to  Fort  St.  Julian,  which  is  situated  at  the  entrance  to  the  har- 
bor, opposite  the  place  where  we  landed.  It  was  in  this  fortress 
we  were  confined.  The  dungeons  to  which  they  consigned  us  were 
adjacent  to  those  in  which,  six  months  before,  they  had  incarcer- 
ated our  Fathers  of  Maragnon,  which  fact,  however,  I  only  learned 
some  time  after.  Father  Wolfi",  a  Silesian  by  birth,  but  belong- 
ing to  our  Province,  is  one  of  these  prisoners.  I  write,  also,  in 
his  name.  Time,  necessity,  or  rather  Divine  Providence,  subse- 
quently furnished  us  the  means  of  communicating  with  each  other 
from  dungeon  to  dungeon. 

"  I  will  now  give  you  a  description  of  our  habitation.  It  is 
subterraneous,  resembling  a  deep  cavern,  or  rather  the  ancient 
vaults  for  the  interment  of  the  dead.  Its  proximity  to  the  sea- 
shore renders  it  constantly  damp.  Worms  generate  and  multiply 
by  myriads,  from  wh\ch  we  sulfer  much.  Vent-holes  have  been 
made  high  up  in  the  walls,  to  afford  sufficient  light  for  those  who 
descend  to  convey  us  our  food;  but  neither  air  nor  light  can  reach 
us,  except  only  when  the  iron  door  of  the  prison  is  opened.  You 
can  judge  from  this  how  infectious  and  unhealthy  these  subterra- 
nean dungeons  are.  The  wretched  oil  which  we  burn  in  our  lamp 
emits  an  insupportable  odor.  The  cell  in  which  I  am  is  six  feet 
long,  by  thirteen  wide.  There  are  others  still  smaller,  where  two 
persons  are  squeezed  together.  It  is,  however,  a  great  consolation 
to  have  a  -companion,  and  this  would  not  have  been  accorded  us 
had  not  the  number  of  prisoners  been  so  great.  At  first,  I  had 
only  one  companion,  a  Florentine  Brother,  who  was  an  excellent 
sculptor.  Next,  there  came  a  young  Genoese  student,  who,  at  the 
expiration  of  two  years,  piously  terminated  his  earthly  career. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  131 

His  place  was  filled  by  the  Brother  who  is  about  to  leave  me.  By 
this  association,  I  have  been  deprived  of  tlie  means  of  going  to 
confession.  Our  keepers  are  extremely  vigilant,  so  as  to  prevent 
us  having  communication  with  any  one,  even  with  those  who  serve 
us,  and  who  would  not  venture  to  open  their-  lips  to  us.  !Never- 
theless,  it  has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  suggest  to  us  a  means 
whereby  to  conuuunicate  to  each  other  all  that  happens  in  our  re- 
spective dungeons,  be  it  illness  or  other  sufferings,  so  that  we  may 
mutually  assist  each  other  by  prayer. 

"On  the  first  day  of  my  arrival,  I  had  the  damp  ground  for  my 
bed,  and  for  a  pillow  my  breviary.  This  was  my  only  resource 
at  a  time  when  I  was  suffering  from  an  affection  of  my  legs,  which 
prevented  my  standing  up.  Moreover,  I  had  lost  on  board  the 
vessel  a  cotton  coverlet,  which  I  had  been  permitted  to  bring 
from  Goa.  After  some  time,  they  gave  us  a  straw  bed,  which 
was  soon  rotted  by  the  damp.  Such  is  the  couch  upon  which  I 
serenely  repose.  Blessed  be  God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  God  of  all  consolation,  who  consoles  us  in  all  our  tribulation,  and 
who  makes  us  feel  how  sweet  it  is  to  suffer  for  His  holy  name! 

"  Perhaps  those  who  may  hear  this  account  will  say  that  ours  is 
a  hard  fate.  In  truth,  it  is  so;  but  what  are  our  sufferings  in  com- 
parison with  those  which  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  endured  in 
all  His  members?  And  when  I  reflect  upon  them  before  God,  I 
blush  that  I  suffer  so  little  for  Him,  especially  when  I  compare 
suffering  for  suffering — mine  with  those  of  the  first  Fathers  of  our 
society,  and  of  so  many  generous  martyrs  of  the  faith;  with  those 
which  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  our  Saviour  and  our  model,  has  suf- 
fered for  the  love  of  us.  We  have,  strictly  speaking,  only  one 
source  of  sorrow,  but  it  is  a  great  one.  It  is  being  deprived  of  the 
bread  of  angels.  Alas!  can  you  believe  it,  Reverend  Father,  they 
will  only  grant  it  to  the  dying!  Oh,  how  closely  do  we  not  re- 
semble the  dead!  God  grant  that  we  may  be  as  perfectly  dead  to 
the  world.  We  are  here  as  though  we  were  entombed.  Oh,  that 
we  might  be  buried  here  with  Jesus  Christ,  so  that  God  alone, 
being  witness  of  our  sufferings,  our  submission,  and  our  love, 
would  support  us,  until  it  should  please  Him  to  make  known  to 
us  our  fate!  As  yet,  Reverend  Father,  I  have  not  spoken  to  you 
of  my  health.  Well,  it  is  tolerable.  For  the  rest,  I  am  perfectly 
contented  with  my  prison.  Thanks  be  to  God,  who  fortifies  me. 
I  desire  nothing  more  than  to  bear  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
die  with  Him,  and  to  do  His  divine  will  in  all  things. 


132  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"I  implore  you,  Reverend  Father,  to  communicate  the  contents 
of  this  letter  to  my  friends  and  acquaintances.  I  send  them  my 
best  wishes  and  respects.  Do  not,  in  any  case,  let  them  deplore 
my  fate,  but  rather  let  them  pray  to  our  Lord  for  me,  as  I  pray  to 
Him  for  them,  in  an  especial  manner,  so  that  He  be  pleased 
to  keep  me  in  the  peace  of  heart  which  He  has  deigned  unto  this 
day  to  vouchsafe  unto  me,  unworthy  as  I  am  of  such  a  favor.  That 
which  I  here  ask  is  not  for  myself  alone,  but  also  for  my  brother 
captives.  Prostrate  in  spirit  at  your  feet,  Reverend  Father,  I 
humbly  implore  your  charity.  Deign,  then,  together  w  ith  all  the 
Fathers  and  Brothers  of  the  Province,  to  remember  us  poor  pris- 
oners. Oh,  be  mindful  of  us  in  your  daily  masses  and  prayers. 
No  matter  how  resigned  we  may  feel,  we  are  ever  weak,  fragile 
men.  We  can  do  nothing  of  ourselves,  and  stand  continually  in 
need  of  assistance  from  on  high.  Hence  it  is  that  you  must  pray 
for  us,  so  that  your  petitions,  ascending  to  the  throne  of  God,  may 
obtain  for  us  the  grace  to  fight  constantly  and  victoriously  to  the 
end,  like  true  children  of  our  mother,  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

"I  must  now  conclude.  Reverend  Father,  my  paper  being  ex- 
hausted. Relying  upon  your  charity  and  goodness,  I  once  more 
beg  of  you  never  to  forget  us  in  your  petitions  to  the  throne  of 
Grace. 

"I  am.  Reverend  Father,  the  humblest  of  your  servants  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Charles  Przikwill. 

"  From  the  Prison  of  St.  Julian,  Lisbon,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus,  De- 
cember, 177G." 

EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  ACCOUNT  OF  FATHER  FRANCIS  FILIPPI,  FORMERLY 
MISSIONARY  OF  MALABAR,  ADDRESSED  TO  FATHER  LICHETTA. 

"In  the  year  1763,  the  inmates  of  our  underground  monastery 
were  augmented  in  number.  Eighteen  Jesuits  of  the  Province  of 
Maragnon,  who,  up  to  this  time,  had  been  confined  in  the  Fortress 
of  Almeida,  were  transferred  to  our  prison,  in  order  that  they 
might  not  be  liberated  by  Spain,  which,  at  the  time,  was  at  war 
with  Portugal,  so  much  did  they  fear  that  a  single  one  of  these 
prisoners  should  die  any-where  else  than  in  their  dungeons!  To- 
ward the  year  1764,  there  also  arrived  sixteen  Jesuit  prisoners 
from  Macao.  Our  community  was  thus  augmented  to  the  number 
of  eighty.  Among  the  latter  was  Father  du  Gad,  a  Frenchman  by 
birth,  who,  in  1767,  was  liberated  through  the  interference  of  hia 
government,  and  procured  the  liberty  of  Father  Delsart,  a  sub- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  133 

ject  of  the  French  crown.  The  latter  obtained  the  deliverance  of 
Brother  Durazzo,  who,  in  turn,  appealing  to  the  court  of  Sardinia, 
succeeded  in  securing  the  freedom  of  Fathers  Fantini  and  Buon- 
giovanni. 

"Not  long  afterward,  thirtj'-four  of  our  fellow-prisoners  wer; 
removed  to  Rome.  I  remained  with  my  beloved  consoler, 
Father  Storioui,  and  the  Jesuits  of  Maragnon.  Our  purgatory 
was  not  yet  complete  ;  ten  long  years  still  remained  to  be  added 
to  our  penance.  In  the  same  year,  17G7,  the  commandant  of  the 
fort  died.  His  successor  at  first  appeared  to  be  more  humane,  but 
soon,  his  heart  yielding  to  avarice,  he  commenced  to  speculate  on 
the  insignificant  sum  set  apart  for  our  maintenance,  and  thereby 
afforded  us  ample  opportunity  for  exercising  patience.  In  the 
year  1769,  our  brethren,  who  had  departed  for  Italy,  were  re- 
placed by  twenty  others,  who,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  incarcer- 
ated in  the  vaults  of  the  palace  of  the  Duke  of  Aveiro. 

"Thus  we  arrived  at  the  fearful  epoch  of  1773,  which  was  well 
calculated  to  teach  us  that  all  we  had  heretofore  suflered,  was 
nothing  in  comparison  with  the  sufferings  which  the  inscrutable 
designs  of  Providence  had  reserved  for  us — they  were  the  dregs 
of  the  chalice.  Oh,  how  bitter  they  were !  At  the  commence- 
ment of  the  month  of  September,  the  Marquis  de  Pombal  came  to 
Oeiras,  about  a  mile  distant  from  Fort  St.  Julian,  and  communi- 
cated to  us,  through  one  of  his  attaches,  the  fatal  news  of  the  sup- 
pression of  the  society.  By  a  refinement  of  cruelty,  and  for  the 
sole  pleasure  of  tormenting  us  upon  a  point  which  he  was  aware 
we  would  most  keenly  feel,  our  tyrant  imparted  the  greatest 
solemnity  to  a  procedure  which  in  itself  was  barbarous.  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  directions  of  Pombal,  we  were  all  collected  at 
the  entrance  to  the  dungeons,  and,  after  reading  to  us  the  decree, 
80  harsh  in  its  expressions,  and  so  disheartening  in  its  purport, 
they  violently  tore  from  our  backs  the  last  remnants  of  the  habit 
of  the  society;  and,  in  the  presence  of  two  companies  of  soldiers 
and  a  large  concourse  of  spectators,  who  rejoiced  in  our  humilia- 
ting position,  they  clothed  us  in  a  parti-colored  sort  of  hair-cloth 
garment,  i-esembling  a  smock-frock,  thereby  adding  to  our  confu- 
sion by  its  absurd  appearance,  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the  habit 
of  our  society.  Oh,  Father,  I  have  not  words  to  expatiate  upon 
these  proceedings !  Human  language  is  inadequate  to  express  the 
feelings  which  rent  our  hearts.  You,  too,  have  participated  in  the 
anguish,  and  are  capable   of   comprehending   them.     God   alono 


134  HISTORY    OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

• 

knows  the  tears,  the  sighs,  and,  above  all,  the  extreme  consterna- 
tion  of  which  our  catacombs  were  witness. 

"  Our  persecutors  revelled  in  this  scene,  congenial  to  theii 
hearts.  Like  tigers  feeding  upon  their  prey,  they  delighted  in  it, 
and,  as  it  were,  sucked  drop  by  drop  the  blood  of  their  victims. 
They  jeered  at  our  grief,  and  reproached  us  with  it  as  though 
it  were  a  crime.  They  detailed  to  us,  with  an  air  of  triumph,  the 
public  rejoicings  ordered  throughout  the  world,  the  Te  Deurrus 
chanted  in  the  churches,  and  the  three  days'  exposition  of  the 
blessed  sacrament,  in  thanksgiving  for  the  suppression  of  the 
society.  Then,  as  though  they  had  a  right  to  dictate  to  th^affec- 
tions  of  our  souls,  they  informed  us  that  the  abolition  of  the  so- 
ciety being  the  wish  of  His  Majesty,  our  sorrow  was  a  revolt 
against  the  state  and  against  the  King,  and  that,  instead  of  weep- 
ing, it  was  our  duty  to  rejoice  in  common  with  all  good  citizens! 
The  barbarians  !  May  God  forgive  them !  I  do  not  believe  it  pos- 
sible to  find,  in  the  history  of  all  the  tyrants  the  world  has  ever 
produced,  a  stroke  of  cruelty  comparable  to  this. 

"It  was  anticipated  by  every  one  that  the  publication  of  the 
Brief  of  Suppression  would  throw  open  our  prisons  and  give  us  full 
freedom,  or,  at  least,  banishment.  But  nothing  of  the  sort.  We 
still  retained  enough  of  the  attributes  of  our  mother  to  draw  down 
upon  us,  after  her  destruction,  the  cruelties  of  her  enemies.  The 
severity  of  our  captivity,  however,  was  somewhat  modified,  and  a 
very  great  favor  was  accorded  us ;  namely,  permission  to  receive 
the  Holy  Eucharist  regularly  once  a  month.  Up  to  this  time,  we 
had  been  declared  excommunicated,  and  had  been  treated  accord- 
ingly, in  the  name  of  religion.  The  delight  of  partaking  of  the 
bread  of  angels  fully  consoled  us,  and  gave  us  new  strength 
cheerfully  to  bear  our  daily  trials.  The  year  1777  was  approach- 
ing. We  had  passed  sixteen  years  in  these  catacombs,  during 
which  time  thirty-five  of  our  members  died.  Of  these,  eleven  be- 
longed to  the  Province  of  Malabar;  namely.  Fathers  J.  Pedemonte, 
J.  Dos  Santos,  F.  Mourei,  E.  Diaz,  John  Figueiredo,  E.  Da  Sylva, 
A.  Rodriguez,  John  Ignatius,  E.  De  Mathos,  John  Franco,  and  Fr. 
d' Albuquerque.  A  circumstance  worthy  of  remark  is,  that  during 
the  eighteen  years  of  our  captivity,  we  had  never  been  interro- 
gated by  an  agent  of  the  government,  or  informed  of  the  cause  of 
our  imprisonment.  There  was  so  little  consideration  or  sense  of 
justice,  that  hatred  and  iniquity  did  not  even  take  the  pains  to 
cloak  themselves  with  the  semblance  of  these  exterior  formalities. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    LORENZO   RICCI.  135 

• 

"  At  last^  the  j^ear  1777  arrived,  and  ptit  an  end  to  our  suffer- 
ings. King  Joseph  I  was  summoned  to  the  tribunal  of  Him  who  is 
the  Judge  of  judges.  God  have  mercy  on  his  soul  I  The  Queen, 
who  succeeded  him,  was  most  anxious  to  do  jiistice  to  all.  The 
prisons  were  thrown  open;  the  bowels  of  the  earth  gave  forth  those 
who  had  so  long  been  buried,  and,  among  the  rest,  we  participated 
in  this  general  resurrection.  There  were  forty-five  of  us  still  re- 
maining, after  so  many  years  passed  in  this  utter  obscurity,  and 
in  so  heavy  an  atmosphere.  Great  precautions  were  needed,  lest 
we  should  suffer  by  the  sudden  transition.  The  pure  light  of  day 
would  have  blinded  us,  the  free  air  of  heaven  would  have  suffo- 
cated us. 

"I  will  not  attempt  to  portray  to  you  the  transports  of  joy 
which  burst  forth  throughout  all  Portugal,  on  witnessing,  as  it 
were,  the  restoration  to  life  of  eight  or  nine  hundred  persons,  the 
remnant  of  nearly  nine  thousand,  who  had  been  forcibly  carried 
off  by  the  Minister,  many  of  them  belonging  to  the  best  families 
of  the  kingdom.  But,  above  all,  how  can  I  express  to  you  our  own 
joy,  when,  after  eighteen  years,  we  once  more  have  the  happiness 
of  offering  up,  at  the  altar  of  the  living  God,  the  Divine  sacrifice 
of  propitiation  ?  Having  spent  a  few  days  in  Lisbon,  in  order  to 
recruit  our  strength,  I,  in  company  with  seven  German  and  five 
Italian  Fathers,  embarked  for  Genoa,  where  we  found  twenty  of  our 
former  companions,  who  were  assembled  at  the  novitiate  of  Carig- 
nan,  and  several  others,  who  were  scattered  throughout  the  imme- 
diate locality.  They  all  received  us  with  marks  of  the  tenderest 
affection,  a  proof  to  us  that  our  enemies,  in  the  suppression  of  the 
society,  had  been  unable  to  extinguish  in  the  hearts  of  its  children 
that  heavenly  charity  which  is  its  soul  and  distinctive  character- 
istic."* 

IV. 

The  unfortunate  affair  of  Father  Lavalette  was  not  yet 
settled,  and  Providence  still  prevented  the  departure  of 
the  Visitors.  In  1759,  Father  Ricci  nominated  Father 
Fronteau  for  that  office,  who  was,  at  length,  enabled  to 
start,  but  died  before  reaching  his  destination.  Father 
de  Launay,  Procurator  of  the  Canada  missions,  was  named 

*  History  of  Madura,  by  Rev,  R.  P.  Bertrand,  S.  J.     Paris,  1854. 


136  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

his  successor ;  but  he  broke  his  leg  at  the  very  moment 
of  his  departure.  The  General  was  not  disheartened  ;  he 
was  a  Jesuit.  He  appointed  another  Visitor,  and,  for  greater 
safety,  caused  him  to  embark  on  board  a  neutral  vessel ; 
but  the  precautions  proved  of  no  avail — the  vessel  was 
captured  by  pirates. 

During  this  time,  a  widow,  named  Grou,  and  her  son, 
who  were  merchants  at  Nantes,  had  commenced  proceed- 
ings against  the  Jesuits  for  the  recovery  of  the  debts 
contracted  by  Father  de  Lavalette,  and,  on  the  30th  of 
January,  the  Consular  Court  of  Paris  gave  judgment 
against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  as  a  body,  in  the  sum  of 
thirty  thousand  livres,  due  to  the  widow  by  Father  de 
Lavalette.  The  firm  of  Lioncy  Brothers,  of  Marseilles, 
following  the  same  course,  obtained  judgment  from  the 
Court  of  Marseilles,  on  the  29th  of  May,  in  the  same  year, 
authorizing  them  to  seize  upon  the  property  of  the  soci- 
ety to  the  amount  of  their  claim. 

The  judgment  of  these  two  courts  was  contrary  to  the 
laws  in  force  concerning  religious  orders,  which  were  not 
held  responsible,  as  a  body,  for  their  several  houses,  each 
of  these  being  accountable  for  its  own  debts  alone  ;  but 
here  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  in  question,  whose  annihi- 
lation was  sought  for  by  the  coalition.  Thenceforth  wick- 
edness might  boldly  assume  the  name  of  justice. 

False  or  misguided  friends  persuaded  the  Jesuits  to 
appeal  against  this  judgment  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Parliament  of  Paris.  This  was  to  deliver  them  over 
to  their  most  powerful  enemies.  The  first  step  of  the 
Parliament   was    to   suppress    their  Sodalities,*   in    order 

*  These  Sodalities,  or  congregations,  were  in  existence  ever  since 
the  commencement  of  the  society.  Juan  de  Leon,  a  young  Jesuit 
(professor  of  the  fifih  class)  at  the  Roman  College,  called  together 
daily  the  most  pious  of  the  students,  in  order  to  encourage  them  in 
the  practice  of  every  virtue,  and  to  excite  in  them  the  love  of  God 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  137 

thus  to  deprive  them  of  an  important  influence,  which 
they  exercised  over  their  former  pupils.  It  is  true,  that 
while  they  abolished  the  Sodality  of  the  ever  blessed  Vir- 
gin, they  sanctioned  the  establishment  of  Freemasonry. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  17GI,  the  Parliament  ordered 
the  Jesuits  to  deposit  in  the  hands  of  the  Kegistrar, 
within  three  days,  a  copy  of  the  rules  of  the  society. 
Father  de  Montigny,  without  awaiting  the  expiration  of 
this  time,  hastened  to  make  the  deposit  of  these  myste- 
rious constitutions,  which,  in  all  times,  have  been  made 
the  bugbears  of  the  credulous  or  the  ignorant,  and  the 
Parliament  constituted  itself  the  judge  of  rules  and  con- 
stitutions, which  had  been  so  often  approved  by  the  Sov- 
ereign Pontifl's,  and  the  practice  of  which  had,  until  then, 
filled  the  world  with  just  admiration.  On  the  8th  of- 
May,  the  court  condemned  the  General,  and,  in  his  person, 
the  whole  society,  to  pay  the  capital  and  interest  of  Fa- 
ther de  Lavalette's  debts,  within  one  year  from  the  ren- 
dering of  the  decision. 

The  holders  of  the  claims,  in  the  event  of  the  society 
demurring  payment,  were  empowered  to  seize  upon  its 
property.  Forged  claims  were  presented,  which  increased 
the  total  amount  of  the  debt  of  Father  de  Lavalette  to 


and  of  study.  These  meetings  were  brought  to  a  cJose  by  a  prayer 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  to  whom  the  fervent  students  dedicated  their 
good  resolutions.  The  measure  was  looked  upon  as  most  salutary  to 
the  young  students.  Founded  in  1563,  it  increased  and  propagated 
itself  rapidly  in  all  the  colleges  of  the  Order,  and,  in  1584,  Gregory 
XIII  constituted  these  assemblies  into  a  primary  congregation  in 
the  Church  of  the  Roman  College.  All  the  students  who  belonged 
to  the  Sodality  in  the  colleges  of  the  Jesuits,  and  who  desired  to  par- 
ticiijate  in  the  prayers  of  those  from  whom  they  always  parted  with 
regret,  retained  their  membership,  which  became  for  them  in  the 
world  a  bond  of  friendship  and  brotherly  love.  It  spread  through- 
out the  whole  world,  and,  wherever  there  was  a  Jesuit  college,  there, 
also,  was  sure  to  be  founded  a  Sodality. 
49 


138  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

five  millions.  The  Parliament  made  no  effort  to  arrest 
the  forgers. 

The  rules  were  examined,  and  several  portions  of  them 
were  condemned  by  the  magistrates,  who,  no  doubt,  con- 
sidered themselves  competent  judges  in  matters  regarding 
a  religious  life.  Louis  XV,  at  length,  being  apprised  of 
all  this  injustice,  on  the  2d  of  August  suspended  the  Par- 
liament for  a  year,  and  commanded  the  Jesuits  to  place  in 
the  hands  of  his  Council  the  names  of  their  houses.  The 
Parliament  refused  to  register  the  royal  edict,  and,  on  the 
same  day,  protested  against  all  the  Bulls  and  apostolical 
letters  concerning  the  priests  and  students  of  the  society 
styling  itself  of  Jesus.  It  declared  that  society  the  enemy 
of  the  Church,  of  the  Holy  See,  of  the  rights  of  the  Gal- 
ilean Church,  and  of  all  authority  in  general.  They  no 
longer  reproached  it,  as  before,  with  blind  obedience  to 
the  Holy  See,  with  an  unswerving  attachment  to  the 
Church.  It  was  necessary  to  diversify  the  charges,  so  as 
to  avoid  monotony  ;  but  the  Parliament,  were  it  only  for 
its  own  sake,  ought  certainly  to  have  been  consistent. 
To  accuse  the  Jesuits,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  of  being 
the  supporters  and  the  enemies  of  the  Holy  See,  involved 
contradiction,  and  must  have  caused  diversion  on  the  one 
hand,  and  indignation  on  the  other.  The  effect  of  this 
decision  was  a  strict  prohibition  on  the  King's  subjects, 
first,  from  entering  the  said  society;  secondl}^,  for  any 
Jesuit  to  give  public  or  private  lessons  in  theology. 

The  Jesuits  remained  passive.  The  three  Superiors  of 
the  houses  in  Paris  forbade  their  writing  a  single  line  in 
their  own  defense,  or  claiming  that  to  which  they  were 
justly  entitled.  They  were  innocent.  They  were  perse- 
cuted by  those  for  whose  salvation  they  had  labored  with 
the  most  ardent  zeal ;  they  placed  themselves  in  the  all- 
powerful  hand  of  Providence,  and  bided  their  time.  The 
philosophers    and  Jansenists  drew  their  own  conclusions 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  139 

from  the  calm  and  di<2;nified  silence  of  their  victims.  They 
accused  them  of  conspiracy,  intri<j:ue,  and  secret  diplomacy. 
The  Jesuits  will  always  be  the  bugahous  of  puerile  minds. 
The  King's  Council,  judging  the  Parliament  incompetent 
to  decide  upon  the  constitutions  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
as  it  had  arrogated  to  itself  the  right  to  do,  called  together 
an  assembly  of  the  clergy,  to  whom  it  submitted,  in  the 
name  of  the  King,  these  four  propositions  for  solution: 

"1.  The  usefulness  of  the  Jesuits  in  France,  and  the  advant- 
ages or  disadvantages  which  might  result  from  their  exercising 
the  various  functions  entrusted  to  them. 

"2.  The  general  tendency  of  the  Jesuits  in  their  teaching,  and 
their  conduct  with  regard  to  the  opinions  contrary  to  the  personal 
security  of  sovereigns,  and  concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  French 
clergy,  as  contained  in  their  declaration  of  1682,  and  generally  on 
the  ultramontane  opinions. 

"3.  The  conduct  of  the  Jesuits  with  respect  to  the  submission 
due  to  bishops  and  other  ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  whether  they 
do  or  do  not  encroach  upon  the  rights  and  functions  of  pastors. 

"4.  What  restriction  could  be  placed  upon  the  authority  of  the 
General  of  the  Jesuits  in  France,  as  at  present  exercised?  " 

On  the  30th  of  November,  fifty-one  Cardinals,  Arch- 
bishops, and  Bishops,  under  the  presidency  of  Cardinal 
de  Luynes,  commenced  their  deliberations  on  these  four 
propositions,  and,  in  a  month  after,  gave  a  unanimous  de- 
cision in  favor  of  the  Jesuits  on  all  four  of  the  points 
submitted.  Six  only  were  in  favor  of  a  few  modifications, 
in  order  to  gratify  the  Minister,  Choiseul,  who  desired  to 
see  a  division  in  the  assembly.  Fitz  James,  Bishop  of 
Soissons,  a  Jansenist,  was  the  only  one  who  demanded  a 
suppression  of  the  society,  admitting,  at  the  same  time, 
"that,  perhaps,  there  is  no  order  in  the  Church  the  mem- 
bers of  which  are  so  strict  or  so  austere  in  their  morality." 
Seventy  prelates,  who  had  been  prevented  from  attending 
the  assembly,  made  known  to  the  King,  by  letter,  their 


140  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

views  of  the  questions  submitted.  These  views  were,  on 
the  whole,  in  conformity  with  the  majority.  The  King, 
influenced  by  his  Minister  and  those  by  whom  he  was  sur- 
rounded, adopted  the  opinions  of  the  minority. 

In  the  month  of  March,  1762,  desiring  to  conciliate  all 
parties,  he  annulled  the  proceedings  opened  on  the  1st  of 
August,  1761,  declaring  the  Jesuits  to  be  subject  to  the 
Bishop  of  the  diocese  and  to  the  laws  of  the  state,  and, 
further,  defining  the  manner  in  which  the  General  of  the 
society  should  exercise  his  authority  in  France.  The  ene- 
mies of  the  Society  of  Jesus  refused  to  be  satisfied  with 
this;  they  desired  its  suppression,  or,  at  least,  its  expul- 
sion from  the  kingdom,  and  they  so  importuned  the  King 
that  this  edict  was  withdrawn  by  the  weak  monarch,  to  the 
great  joy  of  those  who  sought  the  downfall  of  the  Jesuits, 
the  more  easily  to  undermine  the  throne  itself. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  English  had  taken  possession  of 
Martinique,  and  Father  Ricci  had  appointed  Father  de  la 
Marche,  Visitor  of  that  province,  in  the  affair  of  Anthony 
de  Lavalette.  He  had  furnished  him  with  a  passport  from 
the  British  Government,  and,  the  time  having  arrived,  the 
Visitor  was  at  last  enabled  to  reach  his  destination. 

After  mature  investigation  of  the  subject,  he  gave  a  de- 
cision, on  the  25th  of  April,  1762,  by  which  Father  de 
Lavalette,  being  found  guilty  of  having  engaged  in  trade, 
was  interdicted,  and  sent  to  Europe,  subject  to  the  action 
of  the  Father-General.  The  text  of  the  sentence  shows 
that  the  guilty  man  had  carried  on  this  commerce  unknown 
to  the  other  Fathers. 

The  English  proclaimed  themselves  the  protectors  of 
Father  de  Lavalette.  They  anticipated  the  decision  of 
the  Visitor,  and,  foreseeing  that  the  General  wouM  ezpel 
him  from  the  society,  thought  they  might  win  him  over 
sufficiently    to    make    him    hostile    to    his    Order,    v.'hich 


GENERALSHIP    OV    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  141 

would  have  been  a  stroke  of  great  good  fortune  for  its 
enemies.  In  this,  however,  Anthony  de  Lavalette  disap- 
pointed their  hopes.  He  had,  at  length,  become  aware  of 
his  fault,  and,  when  the  sentence  of  the  Father-Visitor 
was  made  known  to  him,  on  the  very  day  of  its  date, 
he  humbly  submitted,  and  replied  thereto  in  the  fol- 
lowing lines,  in  which  may  be  traced  the  Jesuit  in  the 
penitent : 

"  I,  the  undersigned,  declare  that  I  humbly  acknowledge,  in 
every  particular,  the  justice  of  the  sentence  pi'onounced  against 
me,  although  it  was  through  want  of  judgment  or  reflection,  or  by 
a  sort  of  mishap,  that  I  came  to  engage  in  secular  commerce, 
which  I  relinquished  as  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  troubles  it  had 
caused  in  the  society,  and  throughout  Europe.  Furthermore,  I 
declare,  upon  oath,  that  among  the  tirst  superiors  of  the  society, 
there  is  not  a  single  one  who  authorized,  counselled,  or  approved 
the  commerce  I  was  cai-rying  on;  not  one  who  had  the  least 
participation  in  it,  or  connived  at  it  in  any  way.  It  is  on  this 
account  that,  overwhelmed  with  confusion  and  penetrated  with 
sorrow,  I  beg  the  chief  superiors  of  the  society  to  order  that  the 
Bentence  pronounced  against  me  be  carried  into  etfect  and  pub- 
lished, as  well  as  this  my  acknowledgment  of  my  fault  and  of  my 
sorrow.  In  fine,  I  Call  upon  God  to  witness  that  I  have  not  been 
induced  to  make  this  confession  either  by  coercion,  threats,  per- 
suasions, or  other  means,  but  that  I  do  it  voluntarily,  of  my  own 
accord  and  free  will,  in  order  to  do  homage  to  the  truth,  and  to 
reject,  deny,  and  annihilate,  as  far  as  in  me  lies,  the  calumnies 
which,  through  my  fault,  have  been  heaped  upon  the  society. 

"  Given  at  the  chief  residence  of  the   Mission   of  Martinique, 
the  day,  month,  and  year  above  written,  (25th  of  April,  1762.) 
[Signed,]  "  Antoine  De  Lavalette, 

"Of  the  Society  of  Jesus.' 

Expelled  from  the  society,  Anthony  de  Lavalette  re- 
tired to  England,  and  never  expressed  himself  in  any  way 
contrary  to  the  above  declaration. 

The  unreflecting  have  ever  made  the  most  of  what  is 
49^ 


142       HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

commonly  termed  the  system  of  espionage  practised 
among  tlie  Jesuits.  Had  this  surveillance  been  exercised 
as  strictly  as  those  who  are  not  subject  to  it  pretend. 
Father  de  Lavalette  would  have  been  saved  from  the 
abyss  into  which  he  fell,  and  would  not  have  given  ground 
for  calumnies  which  have  resulted  in  such  disastrous  con- 
sequences. 

V. 

On  the  1st  of  April,  1762,  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
had  all  the  Jesuit  colleges  within  its  jurisdiction  closed. 
On  the  same  day,  the  entire  country  was  suddenly  inun- 
dated with  infamous  libels  against  the  Jesuits.  They 
were  charged,  in  these  pamphlets,  with  having  inculcated 
sacrilege,  blasphemy,  magic,  sorcery,  impiety,  idolatry, 
and  every  other  imaginable  crime.  They  were,  more- 
over, accused  of  favoring  religious  heresies,  sects,  and 
schisms — every  thing  but  Catholicity.  And  it  was  the 
chief  magistrates  of  the  most  Christian  kingdom  who 
published,  or  permitted  to  be  published,  these  gross  ab- 
surdities !  And  the  free-thinkers,  called  philosophers, 
could  not  find  words  sufficient  to  eulogize  this  mairis- 
tracy  for  its  zeal  in  depriving  the  most  Christian  king- 
dom of  Christian  teaching  !  One  would  almost  be  led  to 
doubt  the  possibility  of  such  mental  aberration  of  mind, 
if  history  did  not  undeniably  testify  to  the  fact. 

Flattered  by  the  eulogiums  and  congratulations  of  the 
unthinking,  the  Parliament  went  still  further.  It  caused 
the  mandatory  letters  of  the  bishops  to  be  publicly 
burned,  and  it  suppressed  the  Pope's  briefs  favoring  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  17G2,  the  clergy  of  France  were 
convened  in  extraordinary  session.  On  the  4th,  d'Alem- 
bert  wrote  as  follows  to  Voltaire,  regarding  the  extreme 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  143 

measures  of  Parliament:  '''•They  serve  reason^  without 
suspecting  it;  thrrj  are  the  hl<jh  executioners  for  philoso- 
phers, ichose  orders  they  take  without  knowing  it."  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  true.  On  the  23d  of  May,  the  clergy 
proceeded  to  Versailles,  where  they  laid  before  the  King 
a  petition,  which  was  signed  by  all  the  bishops  who  were 
present  at  the  assembly,  and  which  besought  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Jesuits  in  France.  The  petition  concluded 
with  these  bold  and  hiirh-toned  sentiments  : 

" Religion  commends  to  your  guard  its  defenders;  the  Church, 
its  ministers;  Christian  souls,  their  spiritual  directors;  a  vast 
portion  of  your  subjects,  the  revered  masters  who  have  imparted 
to  them  their  education;  the  youth  of  your  empire,  those  who 
are  to  model  their  minds  and  direct  their  hearts.  Do  not,  Sire, 
we  implore  you,  refuse  to  accede  to  the  expressed  wishes  of  so 
many.  Do  not  allow  that,  in  your  kingdom,  contrary  to  the  dic- 
tates of  justice,  against  the  rules  of  the  Church,  and  in  opposition 
to  the  civil  law,  an  entire  society  should  be  destroyed  without 
cause.  The  interests  of  your  authority  itself  demand  this  at 
your  hands,  and  we  profess  to  be  as  jealous  of  your  Majesty's 
rights  as  we  are  of  our  own." 

But  Louis  XV  was  King  only  in  name  ;  Choiseul,  the 
friend  of  the  philosophers,  controlled  the  King,  directed 
the  Parliament,  governed  the  state,  and  laughed  at  the 
Church,  pretending  to  respect  it,  while  he  refused  to  obey 
it.  The  Parliaments  were  solicited  to  investigate  and  de- 
cide, each  one  within  its  own  jurisdiction,  the  question  of 
the  Jesuits  and  their  constitutions.  The  Council  of  Trent, 
the  Sovereign  Pontiffs,  the  learned  congregations  of  Car- 
dinals, the  assemblies  of  the  higher  clergy  of  France,  all 
these  were,  according  to  the  opinion  of  Parliament,  and  of 

*  To  prevent  misconstruction,  we  must  remind  the  reader  that 
reason  in  those  days  meant,  at  least  with  d'Alembert  and  his  school, 
simply  the  denial  of  revelation.  Philosopher  was  synonymous  with 
Infidel. — Tb. 


144  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  Infidels,  incompetent  to  be  the  judges  of  a  religious 
order.  The  magistracy,  as  a  matter  of  course,  must  be 
possessed  of  sounder  judgment  and  infinitely  superior 
knowledge.  The  Attorney-General,  accordingly,  was  in- 
structed to  report,  in  detail,  upon  the  constitutions  of  the 
Society  of  St.  Ignatius.  Poor  human  nature  !  All  these 
detailed  reports,  as  might  naturally  have  been  anticipated, 
"were  antagonistic  to  the  Jesuits,  and  led  to  their  expul- 
sion. Among  all  the  others,  the  Parliament  of  Britanny 
signally  distinguished  itself.  After  receiving  the  report 
of  la  Chalotais,  it  declared  disqualified  from  holding  any 
public  ojice  all  those  parents  who  should  send  their  chil- 
dren abroad  to  colleges  of  the  Jesuits.  But  the  courts 
of  Flanders,  Artois,  Alsace,  and  Besangon  refused  to  ad- 
mit that  the  Jesuits  were  the  enemies  of  religion  and  of 
the  state,  and  the  magistracy  of  Lorraine  declared  that 
it  considered  the  Jesuits  "  the  most  faithful  subjects  of 
the  King  of  France,  and  the  best  guarantees  of  the  morals 
of  the  people." 

On  the  6th  of  August,  1762,  the  Parliament  of  Paris, 
on  the  requisition  of  Omer  Joly  de  Fleury,*  issued  a  de- 

*  Chauvelin  and  Saint-Fargeau  had  vSnted  all  their  spleen  against 
the  Society  ol"  Jesus.  At  the  last  moment,  it  was  Joly  de  Fleury's 
turn  to  speak.  His  petition  was  printed  and  circulated,  and,  on  the 
following  day,  it  being  the  general  theme  of  conversation,  a  public 
functionary  was  heard  to  exclaim  :  "  Why  speak  of  Omer  Joly  de 
Fleury  ?  He  is  not  a  Homer  {Homere),  I  have  read  him  ;  he  is  not 
handsome  (joli),  I  have  seen  him  ;  and  he  is  not  eloquent  {fletiri),  I 
have  heard  him."  Joly  de  Fleury  very  soon  learned  to  deplore  this 
unfortunate  requisition.  Until  the  latest  hour  of  his  life,  he  ceased 
not  to  say  to  his  family,  again  and  again,  that  he  would  never  for- 
give himself  for  having  felt  it  his  duty  to  call  for  the  suppression 
of  an  order  whose  equal  in  learning  and  science  could  not  be  found.  We 
can  testify  to  this  fact,  from  the  evidence  of  his  nearest  relatives,  by 
whom  we  have  often  heard  it  repeated,  at  a  time  when  we  little 
thought  of  ever  having  occasion  to  place  these  regrets  before  tho 
public. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCL     145 

cree  depriving  the  Jesuits  of  their  property,  their  furni- 
ture, their  libraries,  the  rich  decorations  of  their  churches, 
and  of  all  their  possessions.  It  enacted  that  they  should 
disperse,  no  longer  to  live  in  community,  and  lay  aside 
their  holy  habit.  It  forbade  them  to  correspond  with 
each  other,  or  to  exercise  any  function  whatever,  without 
having  subscribed  to  an  oath  prescribed  by  the  same  de- 
cree ! 

Thus  did  a  court  of  justice  arrogate  to  itself  the  right 
of  depriving  these  men  of  their  worldly  possessions,  of 
dispensing  them  from  their  vows,  of  secularizing  relig- 
ious, of  plunging  four  thousand  priests  into  abject  want, 
of  annulling  the  decisions  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs,  of 
designating  as  corruption  and  abuse  all  that  they  had 
done  for  the  Institute  during  two  centuries !  Thus,  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years,  had  the  Church  been  de- 
ceived, because  she  did  not  possess  a  Pombal  and  a 
Choiseul  to  enlighten  and  direct  her  !  The  spirit  of 
evil  triumphed  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  mocked  those 
whom  it  used  as  instruments  to  accomplish  its  fiendish 
work  of  destruction.  It  well  knew  that  the  day  would 
come  when  they  would  be  buried  beneath  the  ruins  of  the 
edifice  which  they  were  then  laboring  to  overthrow  ! 

The  Jesuits  refused  to  subscribe  to  the  oath  thus  at- 
tempted to  be  forced  upon  them.  Of  four  thousand  then 
residing  in  France,  only  five  complied  with  this  odious 
condition.  Established  in  nearly  all  the  cities  of  the 
kingdom,  wherever  they  were  sought  for  by  the  bishops 
or  by  Christian  souls,  they  preached  the  Gospel,  instructed, 
heard  confessions,  devoted  themselves  to  good  works  with 
untiring  zeal,  charity,  and  self-denial.  They  were  ever 
Jesuits.  Voltaire  ofiered  Father  Adam  a  home  in  his  owu 
house,  thereby  proving  that  he  did  not  entertain  the  bad 
opinion  of  his  quondam  masters  with  which  he  sought  to 
imbue  the  minds  of  others. 


146  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

In  thus  casting  tliem  upon  the  world,  and  depriving 
them  of  all  they  possessed,  the  Parliament  had  accorded 
them  a  pretended  indemnity.  That  of  Paris  allowed  each 
one  a  franc  per  day  ;  Grenoble  and  Toulouse  stretched  their 
generosity  to  a  franc  and  a  half.  At  Toulouse,  the  Jesuits 
had  charge  of  the  galley-slaves  who  passed  through  that 
city,  and  to  whom  they  furnished  a  meal,  at  which  the  pu- 
pils of  the  college  attended  upon  the  prisoners.  After 
the  decree  of  expulsion,  the  Fathers  having  no  longer  this 
charge,  and  the  city  being  compelled  to  make  provisions 
for  the  prisoners,  the  Parliament  concluded  that  the  Jes- 
uits should  still  defray  the  expenses  of  this  collation,  and 
for  that  purpose,  "from  the  thirty  sous  allowed  them, 
seventeen  should  be  deducted  each  day." 

Thus,  the  condemned  convicts  were  better  treated  than 
the  Jesuits.  They  were  allowed  "  seventeen  sous  for  a 
single  meal,"  while  the  Jesuits  had  but  "thirteen  sous  for 
the  entire  day's  support !  " 

The  Archbishop  of  Paris,  the  saintly  Christopher  de 
Beaumont,  in  the  anguish  of  his  soul,  and  the  deep-felt 
sorrow  of  his  heart,  had  courage  to  give  expression  to  his 
sentiments  of  regret  at  the  irreparable  misfortune  which 
had  befallen  the  French  Church,  in  the  expulsion  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  and  the  suppression  of  its  colleges, 
which  thenceforth  left  youth  to  the  perverse  teachings  of 
modern  philosophy.  This  mandatory  letter,  dated  Octo- 
ber, 28th,  1763,  provoked  the  Parliament,  who  condemned 
it,  and  ordered  it  to  be  burned  by  the  public  executioner,  on 
the  21st  of  January,  1764.  It  even  summoned  the  Arch- 
bishop to  the  bar  of  the  house;  but  the  King,  ashamed  at 
the  insane  conduct  of  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  king- 
dom, banished  the  prelate,  in  order  to  shield  him  from  the 
wrath  of  the  Parliament. 

Louis  XV  began  to  see  the  fearful  consequences  of  his 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  147 

weakness.     But  it  was  too  late;  he  no  longer  ruled.     He 
had  never  known  how  to  do  so. 

The  Parliament  made  the  Jesuits  within  its  jurisdic- 
tion suflfer  for  the  protest  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  by 
ordering  them,  under  pain  of  banishment,  to  renounce 
their  Institute.  The  Jesuits  preferred  banishment.  Fa- 
ther Berthier,  preceptor  to  the  King's  sons,  was  not  ex- 
empted from  this  measure.  It  even  reached  the  confess- 
ors of  the  royal  family,  who,  until  then,  had  remained 
at  the  court  of  Versailles,  and  the  King  dared  not  retain 
them  in  opposition  to  the  Parliament  and  Choiseul.  The 
Dauphin  having  strenuously  protested  against  this  banish- 
ment, and  pointed  out  to  the  King  the  injustice  of  the 
various  decrees  of  the  Parliament  against  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  Louis  XV  somewhat  modified  the  last  decree,  and, 
while  maintaining  the  suppression  of  the  houses  of  the 
Order  in  his  kingdom,  allowed  the  Jesuits  to  remain  in 
the  country,  but  separately,  and  not  in  community.  In 
communicating  his  views  to  his  Minister,  the  King  thus 
wrote : 

"The  edict  of  expulsion  is  too  severe  in  the  expressions /orcyer 
and  irrevocably.  Does  not  experience  teach  us  that  the  severest 
edicts  have  been  revoked,  no  matter  how  binding  or  strict  may 
have  been  their  clauses  ? 

"I  am  not  cordially  in  favor  of  the  Jesuits,  but  they  have  been 
always  detested  by  every  heresy;  hence  their  success.  I  will  not 
say  more.  If,  for  the  peace  of  my  kingdom,  I  banish  them,  I 
would  not  have  it  believed  that  I  entirely  approve  all  that  the 
Parliament  has  said  and  done  against  them. 

"  In  yielding  to  the  judgment  of  others  for  the  peace  of  my  king- 
dom, it  is  necessary  that  the  modifications  I  suggest  should  be 
made,  otherAvise  I  will  do  nothing.  1  must  conclude,  or  I  shall  say 
too  much." 

Thus,  he  feared  to  make  known  his  views  in  connection 
with  such  iniquitous  proceedings.      The  Parliament,  taking 


148  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

umbrage  at  the  modifications  proposed  by  the  King,  avenged 
itself  by  an  unqualifiable  measure.  In  registering  the  edict, 
on  the  1st  of  December,  1764,  it  stipulated  that  every  Jesuit 
should  retire  within  the  diocese  to  which  he  belonged  by 
birth;  that  none  should  come  near  Paris,  and  that  all  should 
report  themselves  personally,  every  six  months,  before  the 
magistrate  under  whose  surveillance  they  were  placed.  In 
other  words,  the  Jesuits  were  excluded  from  society,  and 
watched  over  as  so  many  thieves  and  "  ticket-of-leavemen."* 
And  this  is  a  matter  of  history !  And  such  things  were 
enacted  in  a  civilized  country — in  that  France  so  proud  of 
its  urbanity,  its  sagacity,  of  its  learning,  elegance,  and  good 
taste;  in  that  France  which  calls  itself  the  most  Christian 
kingdom ! 

In  none  of  the  Parliaments  were  the  Jesuits  condemned 
save  by  a  very  small  majority,  as  is  proven  by  the  records. 
The  Queen  and  the  Dauphin  had  expressed  to  the  Kinij; 
their  extreme  regret,  on  hearing  of  the  decree  issued 
against  the  Order,  and  the  French  episcopate  had  urged 
His  Majesty  to  oppose  this  gross  iniquity.  Indeed,  the 
Sovereign  Pontiflf  had  written  several  times  to  Louis  XV, 
to  beg  of  him  to  put  a  stop  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Par- 
liament; but  Louis  XV  was  ruled  by  Choiseul.  The  lat- 
ter was  devoted,  body  and  soul,  to  the  coalition,  and  the 
powers  of  darkness  triumphed.  All  the  Catholic  bishops 
implored  the  Pope  to  express  himself  boldly  and  publicly 
in  favor  of  the  Order,  which  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
sought  to  exclude  from  all  the  Catholic  states,  and  Clement 
XIII,  yielding  to  tins  desire,  on  the  7th  of  January,  1765, 
issued  the  Bull  Apostolicum,  by  which  he  condemned  the 

*  By  a  late  act  of  the  British  Parliament,  condemned  felons,  who, 
in  working  out  their  imprisonment,  may  have  shown  evidences  of 
amendment  of  life,  are  allowed  to  go  at  large  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Home  Secretary,  who  grants  them  a  **  ticket  of  leave,"  but 
they  are  always  under  the  surveillance  of  the  police. — Tr. 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  149 

motives  which  had  led  to  the  expulsion  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus  from  Portugal  and  France — an  expulsion  which  His 
Holiness  termed  a  serious  injiirf/  injlicted  on  the  Church 
and  the  Holy  See. 

While  the  enemies  of  the  Church  endeavored  to  banish 
the  Jesuits  from  France,  the  Spanish  Ambassador  at  Rome, 
Don  Manuel  de  Roda,  was  asked  why  Spain  did  not  follow 
the  example  of  France  and  Portugal. 

"  The  time  has  not  yet  come,"  replied  he.  "  Have  pa- 
tience;  wait  until  the  old  lady  dies." 

This  old  lady,  whose  death  was  to  give  a  new  impetus 
to  impiety,  was  the  Queen,  Elizabeth  Farnese,  mother  of 
Charles  III.  Elizabeth  was  firm  and  zealous,  and  boasted, 
among  other  distinguished  members  of  her  family,  Pope 
Paul  III,  who  first  approved  and  sanctioned  the  Society  of 
Jesus.  She  would  not  suffer  that  society  to  fall  beneath 
the  attacks  of  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  and  that,  too, 
under  the  rule  of  her  son.*     She  died  in  1763. 

VI. 

On  the  26th  of  March,  1766,  the  city  of  Madrid  became 
suddenly  the  scene  of  open  insurrection.  "Down  with 
hats  !"  cried  the  people.  "Hurrah  for  the  somhi'ero !  No 
more  high  prices!  Hurrah  for  cheap  markets!  Down 
with  the  Neapolitan  customs !  Long  live  the  Spanish 
customs  !  "  And  the  hats  were  violently  demolished,  the 
provision  stores  ruthlessly  plundered.  An  armed  force 
was  ordered  out  to  quell  the  riot,  but  the  people  were  also 
armed,  and  the  fight  began.  The  commotion  reached  the 
very  entrance  to  the  palace,  when  the  King's  guard,  charg- 
ing upon  the  infuriated  multitude,  afforded  Charles  III 
time  to  escape  to  Aranjuez.  The  people,  who  became 
more  and  more   irritated,  fell    upon,    and    massacred    the 


*  Clement  XIII  and  Clement  XIV,  by  Reverend  Father  Ravignan. 
50 


150  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OP   JESUS. 

Walloon  guards,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  the  greatest 
excesses.  At  this  critical  moment,  the  Jesuits  made  their 
appearance.  By  signs  they  called  for  silence  ;  the  people 
-were  quiet.  They  spoke ;  the  people  listened.  They 
raised  feelings  of  regret  in  their  souls;  they  calmed  their 
excited  passions  ;  they  touched  their  hearts,  causing  many 
to  shed  tears;  they  commanded  that  vast  crowd,  recently 
so  exasperated,  but  now  so  subdued,  to  withdraw  and  re- 
sume their  daily  avocations,  and  the  people  retired  with 
the  docility  of  an  obedient  child.  As  they  dispersed,  the 
insurrectionists,  filled  with  gratitude  for  those  who  had 
just  brought  them  back  to  a  due  sense  of  their  duty, 
caused  the  streets  to  resound  with  the  cries  of  "Long  live 
the  Jesuits  !     Long  live  the  good  Fathers  !  " 

Order  was  restored,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  Jes- 
uits;  but  Charles  III  felt  humbled  in  having  been  obliged 
to  flee  before  the  popular  outbreak,  the  serious  conse- 
quences of  which  had  been  fully  anticipated  by  his  Minis- 
ter, w^hich  an  armed  force  had  been  unable  to  quell,  and 
which  the  Jesuits  had  so  easily  subdued.  The  Count 
d'Aranda,  Prime  Minister,  and  the  Duke  d'x\lba,  a  friend  of 
Pombal,  turned  this  occurrence  to  account  for  the  benefit 
of  the  coalition,  to  which  both  one  and  the  other  had,  for 
some  time,  belonged.  Charles  III  liked  the  Jesuits,  but, 
in  his  wounded  pride,  yielding  to  the  intrigues  of  their 
enemies,  he  lent  a  readv  ear  to  all  the  calumnies  which 
were  circulated  with  a  view  to  defame  them.  They  per- 
suaded him  that  the  Jesuits  alone  were  the  cause  of  an 
outbreak  which  they  had  so  promptly  quelled.  They  also 
showed  him  forged  letters,  proving  that  they  were  con- 
spiring against  him  in  favor  of  his  brother,  the  Infante 
Don  Louis.  One  of  these  letters,  signed  in  the  name  of 
the  General  of  the  society,  reflected  on  the  honor  of  the 
virtuous  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  King's  mother,  whom  Spain 
mourned,  and  whose  memory  was  held  in  veneration.     It 


GENERALSHIP   OF  FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  151 

was  scarcely  necessary  for  impiety  to  go  so  far  to  attain  [in 
end.  In  the  natural  course  of  events,  an  opportunity  pre- 
sented itself,  of  which  the  Ministers  failed  not  to  avail 
themselves.  The  King  of  Spain  desired  and  solicited  the 
canonization  of  Juan  de  Palafox,  formerly  Bishop  of 
Angelopolis.  In  this  he  was  instigated  by  the  Jansenists, 
who  proclaimed  the  sanctity  of  "  that  victim  of  the  Jes- 
uits," and  summoned  the  whole  phalanx  of  unbelievers  to' 
prove  his  pretended  miracles.  The  Jesuits  sought  to  en- 
li(>;hten  the  Kino-  as  to  the  true  motives  of  the  sectarians 
and  the  impious  in  this  matter.  Their  opposition  was  mis- 
construed, and  the  expulsion  was  resolved  upon.  The 
matter,  however,  had  to  be  secretly  investigated.  The 
Jesuits  were,  by  no  means,  to  be  informed  of  the  charges 
preferred  against  them ;  they  were  not  to  be  examined. 
All  was  to  be  conducted  in  such  a  way  as  to  take  them  by 
surprise;  for  it  was  possible  that  the  people  might  rise  in 
their  fiivor,  and,  at  a  given  signal,  the  whole  of  Spain 
be  in  flame. 

Such  was  the  programme  of  the  Count  d'Aranda,  upon 
whom  philosophers  expended  tlie  incense  of  their  praise. 
"They  wished  to  engrave  upon  the  front  of  their  temples, 
and  emblazon  on  the  same  escutcheon,  the  names  of  Lu- 
ther and  of  Calvin,  of  Mohammed,  of  William  Penn,  and 
of  Jesus  Christ. ^^ 

The  investigation  was  carried  on  in  secrecy.  The  whole 
life  of  the  Jesuits  was  incriminated.  Their  exterior  hu- 
mility, the  alms  which  they  distributed  among  the  poor, 
the  care  they  bestowed  upon  the  sick  in  the  hospitals,  the 
consolations  they  afforded  to  prisoners,  all  this  was  only 
intended  to  mislead  the  people,  and  to  bind  them  more 
closely  in  the  interests  of  the  society.  Such  were  the 
only  crimes  with  which  they  were  charged  by  the  Grand 

*  Travels  in  Spain,  by  the  Marquis  de  Langle, 


152  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Fiscal  of  Castile,  Don  Piuys  de  Campomanes.  in  his  speech 
in  prosecution,  January  29th,  1767. 

The  orders  given  to  the  Spanish  powers  in  the  two 
worlds  were  prepared  in  the  King's  cabinet.  To  these 
instructions,  which  were  signed  by  Charles  III,  and  coun- 
tersigned by  d'Aranda,  were  attached  the  three  official 
seals.  On  the  interior  envelope  was  inscribed,  "  On  pain 
'.of  death,  this  packet  is  not  to  be  opened  until  the  evening 
of  the  2d  of  April,  1767." 

The  King's  letter  contained  the  following  lines  : 

"I  invest  you  with  all  my  authority,  and  with  all  my  royal 
power,  to  proceed  forthwith  to  the  house  of  the  Jesuits.  You  will 
there  seize  all  the  religious,  and  convey  them,  as  prisoners,  to  the 
port  herein  indicated,  within  twenty-four  hours.  They  will  there 
be  placed  on  board  vessels,  which  must  be  in  attendance  to  receive 
them.  At  the  time  you  make  the  arrests,  you  will  see  that  all  the 
papers  and  documents  are  taken  possession«of,  and  placed  under 
seal,  and  that  no  one  be  permitted  to  take  away  any  thing  but  a 
change  of  linen  and  his  books  of  devotion.  If,  after  the  embark- 
ation, there  be  found  within  your  department  a  single  Jesuit,  be 
he  sick  or  even  dying,  your  punishment  will  be  death. 

'•The  Kixg." 

• 

Among  the  documents  which  comprise  the  second  vol- 
ume of  Clement  XIII  and  Clement  XIY,  by  the  Reverend 
Father  de  Ilavignan,  we  find  an  account  of  the  execution 
of  this  royal  mandate,  written  by  one  of  its  victims.  It 
is  so  touching  in  its  simplicity,  that  we  shall  here  repro- 
duce an  extract: 

"On  the  appointed  day,  and  at  the  hour  designated,  the  whole 
of  Spain  was  in  a  state  of  commotion.  The  fatal  hour  had  ar- 
rived for  Madrid  and  the  suburbs  of  the  capital.  During  the 
night  of  the  31st  of  March  and  1st  of  April,  17U7,  the  military 
surrounded  the  six  houses  of  the  Jesuits  in  that  city,  and,  at 
the  hour  of  midnight,  entered,  accompanied  by  the  civil  officers, 
one  of  whom  was  to  keep  watch  over  the  Superior.  The  commu- 
nity was  aroused,  and  sentinels  were  posted  at  all  the  outlets.     No 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  153 

sooner  were  the  members  assembled,  than  they  were  informed  of 
the  Kings  commands,  and  they  were  positively  prohibited  from 
holding  any  intercourse  with  those  without  tlieir  walls.  Joachim 
Navarro  was  Rector  of  the  Imperial  College.  On  being  asked  if  he 
submitted  to  the  orders  of  the  King,  he  replied,  'We  are  ready  to 
suffer  not  only  banishment,  but  still  more,  if  necessary,  to  prove  our 
loyalty  and  our  respect  for  the  King.'  These  noble  sentiments  had 
a  marked  effect  upon  the  guard.  Like  resignation  characterized 
the  conduct  of  the  victims  on  every  side.  Nowhere  was  there  to 
be  found  even  the  shadow  of  resistance.  On  the  other  side,  they 
had  the  generosity  to  allow  the  Jesuits  to  retain  their  vestments 
and  prayer-books;  but  all  their  other  books  and  papers  were 
taken  possession  of.  Vehicles  had  been  previously  provided.  The 
religious  were  ordered  to  enter  them,  and  were  thus  conducted, 
under  a  strong  escort,  to  Carthagena.  The  expulsion  of  the  Jes- 
uits was  not  publicly  known  until  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at 
which  hour,  so  rapid  were  the  movements  of  the  Count  d'Ai'anda, 
not  a  single  one  remained  in  the  capital. 

"  The  same  measure  was  enacted  throughout  the  entire  Penin- 
sula, and  the  Jesuits,  who  were  all  arrested  during  the  night,  were 
placed  in  vehicles,  and  conveyed  to  the  nearest  port.  Age,  char- 
acter, services,  nothing  of  the  sort  was  taken  into  consideration. 
Among  these  exiles  were  Peter  de  Catalayud,  sixty-eight  years  of 
age,  a  missionary  known  for  his  labors  throughout  the  whole  of 
Spain,  a  true  apostle,  and  the  author  of  many  books  of  devotion; 
Francis  Xavier  Idiaquez,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Granada,  a 
man  of  letters  and  a  friend  to  science;  Joseph  Pignatelli,  of  the 
Counts  of  Fuentes;  Anthony  Mourin,  a  very  learned,  enlightened, 
and  pious  man,  who  had  been  in  the  entire  confidence  of  the  de- 
ceased King,  Ferdinand  VI;  Gabriel  Bousemart,  an  octogenarian; 
learned  professors,  theologians,  orators,  and  enlightened  direct- 
ors, all  suffered  the  same  fate." 

"One  of  these,  Matthew  Aimerich,  of  the  diocese  of  Granada," 
says  another  of  these  exiles,  "beguiled  the  tedious  hours  by  pious 
discourses,  and  exhorted  us  to  pray  for  the  King,  which  we  did 
often,  and  loith  all  our  heart.  They  had  carefully  separated  the 
novices  from  those  Avho  were  professed,  in  order,  said  their  oppress- 
ors, to  prevent  the  possibility  of  their  being  led  away.  But  there 
were  some  of  these  who  preferred  to  follow  the  exiles  rather  than 
abandon  a  society  in  which  they  had  witnessed  examples  of  the 

highest  virtues.     One  youth  of  sixteen,  Gonzalvo-Hinojosa  Adorno, 
50* 


154:  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

belonging  to  a  noble  family  of  Xeres  de  la  Frontera,  rejected 
every  entreaty,  and  embarked  with  the  Fathers.  Joseph  de  Silva, 
seventeen  years  of  age,  concealed  himself,  and  secretly  boarded 
the  vessel  at  Cadiz,  in  order  to  be  near  his  masters.  Lawrence 
Ignatius  Thiulen,  a  young  Swedish  Protestant,  who  had  been  con- 
verted by  the  learned  Iturriaga,  renounced  fortune  and  country 
to  follow  him,  and  secretly  started  for  Italy,  where  he  was  or- 
dained." 

The  Count  d'Aranda,  foreseeing  that  all  the  odium  of 
such  barbarity  would  fall  upon  himself,  and  that  one  day 
he  would  have  to  account  therefor  to  the  highest  nobility 
of  Spain,  proposed  to  many  Jesuits  of  distinguished  fam- 
ilies, that  they  should  cast  aside  the  habit  of  their  order, 
hold  no  intercourse  whatever  with  their  brethren,  retire 
to  the  bosom  of  their  families,  and  there  reside  as  secu- 
lar priests,  assuring  them  that  they  should  never  be  mo- 
lested or  interfered  with.  All  refused.  Father  Joseph 
Pignatelli,  grand-nephew  of  Innocent  XII,  and  brother 
of  the  Spanish  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  France,  was 
of  this  number,  and  in  ill-health.  They  urged  him  to  ac- 
cede to  the  proposition,  but  all  their  entreaties  were  of  no 
avail.  They  promised  him  that  he  should  be  allowed  to 
depart  when  his  health  was  restored,  but  he  remained  in- 
flexible. They  followed  him  as  far  as  Tarragona,  conjuring 
him  to  spare  his  family  the  pain  of  seeing  him  embark  in 
such  a  dangerous  condition.  "  My  determination  is  fixed," 
he  replied  ;  "  it  matters  little  whether  my  body  become 
food  for  fishes  or  for  worms  !  That  which  I  most  desire 
is,  to  die  in  the  Society  of  Jesus."  Nicholas,  the  brother 
of  Joseph  Pignatelli,  and  also  a  Jesuit,  was  animated  by 
the  same  spirit.  Shortly  after  their  departure,  the  31in- 
ister,  Manuel  de  Roda,  wrote  as  follows,  to  the  Chevalier 
d'Azara,  Plenipotentiary  of  the  Court  of  Spain,  at  Home  : 
*'  The  Piguatellis  have  absolutely  refused  to  cast  aside  the 


GENERALSHIP    OP    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCL  155 

habit  of  the  society ;  they  seek  to  live   and  die  with  their 
brethren." 

On  the  very  day  of  embarkation,  the  2d  of  April,  17G7, 
the  King  signed  a  pragmatic  sanction  to  justify  this  out- 
rage, declaring  that  the  motives  which  had  determined  his 
course,  "should  ever  remain  buried  in  his  royal  hearty 
and  that  if  he  had  not  acted  with  greater  severity,  it  was 
only  through  clemency y  The  same  edict  prohibited  any 
one  from  speaking  or  writing  against  this  proscription  of 
the  Jesuits.  It  commanded,  under  pain  of  being  consid- 
ered guilty  of  high  treason^  that  the  greatest  silence  should 
be  observed  upon  the  subject,  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
not  the  province  of  individuals  to  judge  of  or  to  interpret, 
the  will  of  the  sovereign.  The  Jesuits  were  to  receive  an 
annual  stipend  of  one  hundred  piastres,  for  the  priests, 
and  ninety  for  the  brothers;  but  this  pension  was  to  be 
disallowed  to  the  whole,  if  one  among  them  attempted  to 
leave  the  Pontifical  States,  or  to  write  in  favor  of  the  Or- 
der to  which  they  had  consecrated  their  lives !  They 
were  forbidden  the  least  communication  with  any  Jesuit 
whatever  !  and  this  was  termed  clemency  I 

Thus,  Charles  III  confiscated  the  property  of  these  holy 
religious,  and  did  not  even  allow  them  a  sufficiency  for 
their  maintenance.  He  dragged  them  from  their  families, 
and  threatened  a  father,  a  mother,  a  brother,  a  sister  with 
the  most  severe  punishment  if  they  attempted  to  corre- 
spond, directly  or  indirectly,  with  their  son,  or  their 
brother  !  He  converted  the  Papal  States  into  a  Spanish 
penal  colony,  prohibiting  the  exiles  from  leaving  them,  as 
if  they  belonged  to  him.  The  inconsistency,  the  absurd- 
ity, and  imbecility  of  the  human  mind  could  go  no  fur- 
ther. It  was  not  until  the  31st  of  3Iarch,  that  Charles 
III  wrote  to  the  Pope,  announcing  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits,  and   not  even  then,  stating  the    cause,  which  he 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

kept  secreted  in  his   royal  heart.      The   Pope   replied  to 
him  at  once,  as  follows  : 

"  Of  all  the  calamities  which  have  befallen  us,  during  the  nine 
unhappy  years  of  our  Pontificate,  the  most  afflicting  to  our  pater- 
nal heart  is  that  which  your  Majesty  has  just  announced.  Thus 
you,  also,  my  son,  iu  quoque,  fili  mi — you,  the  Catholic  King,  Charles 
III,  so  dear  to  our  heart,  fill  up  the  cup  of  our  bitterness,  plunge 
our  old  age  into  the  deepest  sorrow,  and  hurry  us  to  the  grave." 

Nothing  could  extract  from  the  royal  heart  of  Charles 
III  the  secret  of  his  severity  toward  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
He  even  refused  to  make  it  known  to  the  Pope,  who  en- 
treated his  confidence.  His  sole  answer  was,  "  My  life  de- 
pends upon  it."  The  Jesuits  were,  at  this  time,  far  out 
at  sea.  Whose  poniard,  then,  did  he  fear,  when  the 
greatest  criminals  of  his  kingdom  were  banished  from  it? 
His  Ministers  had  told  him  that  his  life  depended  on  his 
secrecy,  and  he  believed  it. 

On  the  same  day,  and  at  the  same  hour,  the  Jesuits 
had  been  similarly  seized  throughout  Spain  and  her  col- 
onies, being  ignorant  whither  they  were  going,  or  of  what 
they  had  been  guilty.  In  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  pos- 
sessions of  South  America,  they  submitted  with  the  same 
heroism,  self-abnegation,  humility,  and  holy  resignation 
which  they  had  shown  in  the  metropolis.  They  had  there 
rendered  immeasurable  services  to  the  Church  and  to 
Spain.  They  had  united  and  civilized  various  peoples ; 
they  had  erected  flourishing  cities;  they  had  put  under 
cultivation  immense  tracts  of  land,  enriched  the  metrop- 
olis, augmented  learning,  given  to  the  sovereign  faithful 
and  submissive  subjects.  They  abandoned  all  these  re- 
sults of  their  truly  apostolical  zeal  and  Christian  charity ; 
they  tore  themselves  away  from  those  pure  hearts  of  the 
natives  who  so  tenderly  loved  them  ;  they  left  without 
pastors  those  numerous  flocks  who  hearkened  so  well  to 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER    LORENZO   RICCI.  157 

tlieir  gentle  words,  and  wlio  followed  them  with  such 
childlike  docility  ;  they  beheld  their  heart-rending  grief; 
they  heard  their  cries  and  sobs  ;  they  blessed  them  ;  and 
they  prayed  for  those  who  were  the  cause  of  this  heavy 
and  bitter  affliction.  Not  one  of  them  allowed  a  murmur 
of  complaint  to  escape  his  lips!  In  Spain  and  in  the 
colonies,  the  novices  were  numerous.  On  account  of  their 
youth,  it  had  been  hoped  that  they  would  refuse  to  share 
the  fate  of  their  masters,  who  were  so  cruelly  treated.  They 
had  been  separated  from  them,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
the  more  easily  worked  upon  by  artifices  or  by  threats. 
Malice  was  deceived,  for  these  tender  youths  found  their 
greatest  joy  and  glory  in  following  their  spiritual  Fathers, 
and  in  claiming  a  part  in  their  humiliations,  sufferings,  and 
exile.  The  result  of  this  general  enthusiasm  was,  that 
there  was  not  enough  vessels  to  accommodate  the  vast  num- 
ber of  victims,  who  were,  in  consequence,  huddled  together 
like  slaves,  filling  the  ships  from  the  very  bottom  of  the  hold 
to  the  deck. 

At  Civita  Vecchia,  the  Governor,  not  having  been  in- 
formed of  the  arrival  of  this  first  convoy,  refused  to 
receive  them,  and  the  holy  religious  were,  in  consequence, 
compelled  to  beat  about  the  coast  for  several  weeks,  A 
great  many  sick  and  aged  perished  during  this  long  inter- 
val. Clement  XIII  gave  the  necessary  orders  for  their 
being  admitted  into  his  dominions.  But  Spain  had  cast 
not  fewer  than  six  thousand  Jesuits  upon  the  Roman 
States,  which  were  not  very  fertile,  and  this  additional 
population,  for  which  they  had  not  had  time  to  make 
provision,  caused  serious  apprehensions  of  great  want.  It 
was  impossible  to  receive  them  all.  The  Roman  court 
became  indignant  at  the  outrageous  conduct  of  Charles 
III,  who  thus  appropriated  the  states  of  the  Church  as  a 
a  place  of  exile  for  his  own  subjects,  without  even  hav- 
ing consulted  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.     It  was  manifesting 


158  HISTORY   OF    THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

a  sort  of  contempt  for  his  sacred  person ;  it  was  treating 
the  Pope  as  a  vassal ;  it  was  imitating  the  impious 
Porabal. 

The  ports  of  Corsica  being  neutral,  Clement  XIII  re- 
quested that  they  might  be  thrown  open  to  the  exiled 
Jesuits.  They  were  received  at  Ajaccio ;  but,  in  the 
month  of  August,  1767,  they  were  removed  to  the  Rock 
of  San-Bonifacio.  At  the  same  time,  the  Genoese  Re- 
public gave  up  Corsica  to  the  French,  and  the  Due  de 
Choiseul  immediately  ordered  Marboeuf  to  drive  out  the 
Jesuits. 

"  The  manner  in  which  this  fresh  expulsion  took  place,"  says 
the  Protestant  Schall,  in  his  History  of  the  European  States,  "pre- 
sented, in  a  pitiable  aspect,  the  pretended  philanthropy  of  the 
leaders  of  philosophy.  They  had  been  unjust  toward  the  French 
Jesuits ;  but  their  conduct  with  regard  to  the  Spanish  Jesuits,  to 
whom  the  Genoese  Republic  had  offered  shelter,  was  barbarous. 
They  placed  the  religious  on  board  vessels,  where,  during  the 
most  oppressive  heat,  they  were,  so  to  speak,  packed  upon  each 
other,  exposed  to  the  ardent  rays  of  the  sun.  Thus  it  was  they 
were  transported  to  Genoa,  whence  they  were  sent  to  the  states 
of  the  Church." 

YII. 

A  GRANDEE  of  Spain,  travelling  in  Italy,  happened  to 
pass  by  Forli.  He  there  met  the  former  Father  Rector 
of  the  principal  house  of  the  Jesuits  at  Madrid,  with 
whom  he  had  a  long  interview.  Among  other  things,  the 
Spaniard  asked  the  Jesuit  if  he  knew  the  reason  of  the 
measures  which  had  been  taken  in  his  country  against 
the  society. 

"  We  have  always  remained  in  ignorance  of  it,"  said 
the  Father. 

"  I  will  tell  you,"  continued  the  grandee.  "  Do  you 
remember  that  one  day,  while  you  were  at  table  with  your 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  159 

community,  some  letters  were  brought  for  you  from  the 
post-office,  and  that  you  handed  the  key  of  your  room  to 
the  brother,  in  order  that  he  might  deposit  the  letters 
on  your  table ;  that,  a  moment  after,  an  officer  made  his 
appearance,  with  orders  from  the  King  to  search  your 
papers,  and  that  you,  at  once,  unsuspectingly  handed  him 
the  key  of  your  room,  that  he  might  make  the  desired 
search  ?" 

"  Yes,  I  now  recollect  the  circumstance,"  said  the 
Father. 

"  Well,"  resumed  the  traveller,  "  among  the  letters  re- 
ceived through  the  post  on  that  day,  there  was  one  bear- 
ing the  mark  of  Rome,  which  purported  to  be  addressed 
to  you  by  your  General,  Ricci,  whose  signature  they  had 
forced.  That  letter,  sealed  and  intact,  was  borne  to  the 
King.  Its  purport  was,  that  a  rumor  prevailed  at  Rome 
that  the  legitimacy  of  the  King  of  Spain  was  questioned; 
that,  in  all  probability,  there  would  be  a  revolution  in 
that  country,  in  which  the  court  of  Rome  would  take  an 
active  part,  in  order  to  place  the  crown  upon  the  brow 
of  the  rightful  heir ;  that  you,  the  Rector,  were  to  take 
care  to  prepare  the  minds  of  your  religious  for  that  event, 
and  to  send  information  of  it  to  the  heads  of  other 
houses.  You  can  readily  perceive,  from  this,  the  object 
of  the  letter.  It  was  a  forgery,  fabricated  by  your  ene- 
mies to  bring  about  your  ruin.  Charles  III,  wounded  in 
his  most  sensitive  point,  readily  fell  into  the  snare.  He 
was  uneasy,  and  hesitated  for  some  time.  He  held  pri- 
vate consultations,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  if  a 
sovereign,  for  certain  reasons,  which  he  could  not  reveal, 
and  which  he  carefully  guarded  in  his  royal  heart,  could, 
in  conscience,  banish  a  religious  order  from  his  states. 

"  The  theologians  answered  in  the  negative  ;  but  the 
courtiers  and  counsellors  replied  in  the  affirmative.     Per- 


160  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

haps  tliey  were  the  very  persons  who  had  fabricated  the 
letter.  Such  is  the  cause  of  your  expulsion,  and  of  the 
severity  with  which  it  was  carried  into  effect."* 

All  the  Protestant  historians  agree  in  attributing  the 
cause  of  this  scandalous  measure  to  nothing  else  but  let- 
ters, which  were  admitted  to  be  forgeries.  All  agree  in 
recognizing  the  entire  innocence  of  the  Jesuits,  and  se- 
verely censure  the  harsh  measures  of  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment. Schall,  in  his  History  of  the  European  States,  at- 
tributes the  invention  of  the  forged  letter  of  Father  Ricci 
to  the  Due  de  Choiseul.  But  some  others  had  been  fabric- 
ated at  Madrid  ;  for  the  Sovereign  PontiiF  having,  at  sev- 
eral different  times,  insisted  upon  their  furnishing  some 
reason  for  their  conduct,  the  government  of  Charles  III, 
at  last,  sent  His  Holiness  one  of  the  convincing  proofs.  It 
was  a  letter,  seemingly  from  an  Italian  Jesuit,  addressed 
to  a  member  of  the  society  at  Madrid,  and  was  full  of  in- 
vectives against  the  Spanish  Government.  The  Pope  sub- 
mitted it,  for  examination,  to  several  prelates,  and  one  of 
tliem,  Angelo  Braschi,  who  subsequently  became  Pope 
Pius  VI,  finding  the  handwriting  perfectly  imitated,  while 
the  paper  had  not  the  appearance  of  being  of  Italian  man- 
ufacture, examined  it  more  minutely  by  daylight,  when  he 
distinctly  discovered  the  name  of  the  Spanish  maker.  It 
struck  him  as  extraordinary  that  one  writing  from  Rome 
should  make  use  of  paper  coming  from  Madrid,  and,  on 
submitting  it  to  a  fresh  scrutiny,  he  succeeded  in  making 
out  the  date  of  its  manufacture.  It  was  two  years  poste- 
rior to  the  date  of  the  letter!  That  it  was  a  forgery  was, 
therefore,  not  difficult  to  prove,  but  it  was  impossible  to 
bring  Charles  III   to   admit  that  he  had  been  deceived. 

*  Account  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Gesii,  at  Rome,  and 
published  by  the  Reverend  Father  de  Ravignau. — Clement  XIII  and 
Clement  XIV. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RIC'CI.     161 

That  prince  never  would  undo  what  he  had  once  done. 
He  could  never  be  made  to  acknowledge  that  he  was 
wrong,  no  matter  how  great  the  error.  The  Jesuits  were 
ignoniiniously  expelled  from  his  states;  they  should  not 
reenter  them  while  he  lived,  notwithstandino;  the  regrets 
and  sorrows  of  his  subjects.  "  Wealthy  people,  women, 
and  fools,"  wrote  Manuel  de  Roda  to  the  Chevalier  d'Azara, 
''were  the  ardent  admirers  of  this  kind  of  people  (the 
Jesuits).  They  ceased  not  to  importune  us  with  the  af- 
fection they  had  for  them,  the  effect  of  their  blindness." 
They  must  have  been  blind,  indeed,  to  see  any  merit  in 
those  apostles  who,  for  more  than  two  centuries,  were  the 
admiration  of  the  world,  and  one  of  the  brightest  glories 
of  the  Church.  But  it  was  just  this  glory  which  was  dis- 
tasteful to  the  modern  philosophers  and  their  allies. 

."The  Jesuits  once  destroyed,"  wrote  Voltaire  to  Helve- 
tius,  "  we  shall  have  easy  work  with  the  beast,  (Vlnfdme).^^ 
It  is  well  known  what  the  philosopher  de  Ferney  meant 
by  Vinfdme. 

The  Portuguese,  French,  and  Spanish  Ministers  had 
well  merited  eternal  reprobation.  However,  the  evil  one, 
who  is  ever  insatiable,  exacted  still  more  from  these  zeal- 
ous servants,  who  had  become  his  slaves. 

On  leaving  the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  take  possession 
of  that  of  Spain,  Charles  III  had  placed  the  crown  upon 
the  youthful  brow  of  one  of  his  sons,  Ferdinand  IV;  but 
the  latter  being  still  a  minor,  he  h:jd  appointed  as  Prime 
Minister  the  impious  Tanucci,  who  belonged  to  the  coali- 
tion, and  had  been  put  forward  by  that  party.  Charles 
III  had  accepted  him  as  he  had  accepted  Squillacci,  d'Ar- 
anda,  and  de  Roda — as  Joseph  I  of  Portugal  had  received 
Pombal — from  outward  appearances.  The  philosophy  of 
the  eighteenth  century  scrupled  not,  when  necessary  to  its 
ends,  to  use  the  mask  of  hypocrisy.  And,  moreover,  had 
51 


162  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

it  not  as  allies  the  Jansenists?  In  France  alone  could 
it  present  itself  boldly,  the  licentiousness  of  the  regency 
having  sufficiently  prepared  the  way. 

The  manner  of  proceeding  invented  by  the  Spanish 
Government  had  humbled  the  Due  de  Choiseul.  The 
Parliament,  on  its  part,  admitted  that  it  had  been  outdone, 
and,  being  unwilling  to  hold  a  secondary  position,  issued, 
on  the  9th  of  May,  1767,  a  fresh  decree  which  annulled 
the  edict  of  Louis  XV,  and  ordered  every  Jesuit  who  had 
not  taken  the  prescribed  oath,  to  leave  the  kingdom  within 
fifteen  days.  "It  is  impossible,"  wTote  the  Abbe  Soz- 
zifanti.  Charge  d'AfiFaires  for  the  Nunciature  of  Paris, 
"  to  treat  the  Jesuits  more  harshly  or  cruelly.  But,  from 
a  fanatical  Parliament  like  this,  nothing  else  could  be  ex- 
pected." 

The  Due  de  Choiseul,  who  had  engaged  all  the  sover- 
eigns of  the  house  of  Bourbon  in  the  family  compact, 
claimed  of  Charles  III  its  application  to  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  and  the  duchy  of  Parma.  The  King  of  Spain  had 
anticipated  him.  He  had  already  written  to  Tanucci,  giv- 
ing him  orders  to  expel  all  the  Jesuits  from  the  states  of 
his  son,  Ferdinand  IV.  Tanucci,  thus  triumphant,  pre- 
sented the  decree  to  the  young  monarch  for  signature. 
"  What  crime,  then,  have  these  religious  committed  ?"  de- 
manded he  of  his  Minister.  "  It  was  they  who  imparted 
to  me  the  first  principles  of  the  faith  ;  their  name  is  re- 
vered by  all  my  faithful  subjects."  And  he  refused  to 
sign  the  odious  decree.  But  Bishop  Latilla,  his  confessor, 
and  a  member  of  the  Council,  won  over  by  the  Marquis 
Tanucci,  made  it  a  case  of  conscience,  in  that  His  Majesty 
disobeyed  his  royal  father,  and  thus  obtained  from  him 
^he  desired  signature.  On  the  following  day,  the  prelate 
gufFered  a  paralytic  stroke.  It  was  the  31st  of  Octo- 
"jpf^lf.    The  edict  of  banishjuent  yvas   to   have  been  put  in 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCL  103 

force  on  that  day,  but  a  violent  and  sudden  eruption  (  f 
Mount  ^Etna  taking  place,  they  feared  further  to  irritate 
the  people. 

"The  volcano  sent,  forth  so  prodigious  a  quantity  of  cinders," 
says  Father  Genci,  in  an  account  preserved  in  the  Gesu,  and  pub- 
lished by  Father  de  Ravignan,*  "  that  the  air  was  completely  ob- 
scured by  them,  even  at  Naples.  The  stones  which  were  projected 
terrified  the  most  courageous.  It  was,  therefore,  deemed  advisable 
not  to  alarm  further  the  people  by  the  banishment  of  the  Jesuits 
during  the  visitation,  fearing  lest  it  might  excite  them  to  revolt, 
for  they  attributed  these  chastisements  to  the  intended  expulsion 
of  the  Order. 

"It  was  on  the  20th  of  November,  at  half-past  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  that  the  Counsellor  Palente,  in  his  robes  of  office, 
escorted  by  several  subalterns,  and  by  a  detachment  of  soldiers, 
pi'esented  himself  at  the  Grand  College  of  Naples.  They  placed 
guards  at  the  entrance,  and  then,  calling  together  all  the  religious, 
read  aloud  to  them  the  royal  decree.  At  the  same  time,  other 
agents  saw  that  all  the  bell-i'opes  were  cut,  so  as  to  prevent  the 
.Jesuits  giving  any  alarm.  Every  room  was  guai-ded,  the  papers, 
hooks,  and  cori-espondence  were  seized,  while  all  else  was  placed 
under  seal,  leaving  to  each  Jesuit  only  his  breviary  and  the  gar- 
ments which  he  wore.  The  whole  community  were  closely  watched 
during  their  spiritual  exercises  and  their  evening  repast.  At  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  they  again  assembled  the  religious,  calling 
over  each  name  separately,  and,  placing  them  in  carriages,  which 
had  been  previously  ordered,  conducted  them,  under  guard,  to 
Pozzuolo.  There  they  separated  the  professed  from  the  novices. 
The  latter  were  confined  in  an  old  chateau,  which  was  used  as  a 
storehouse  for  forage,  while  the  religious  were  sent  to  the  houses 
of  the  Carmelites  and  Capuchins,  where  they  were  to  remain  until 
the  time  of  embarkation.  What  occurred  at  the  Grand  College  of 
Naples  was  repeated  at  the  other  six  houses  of  the  Jesuits  in  that 
city.  The  prisoners  were  embarked  for  Terracina,  where  they  were 
quickly  joined  by  the  novices,  who  had  resisted  all  the  promises 
and  threats  employed  to  overcome  them.  Only  seven  consented 
to  return  to  their  families." 

*  Clement  XIII  and  Clement  XIV. 


164  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Malta,  which  was  a  dependency  of  the  two  Sicilies,  had 
also  to  expel  the  Jesuits. 

The  demon  of  darkness  was  not  yet  content.  The 
young  Duke  of  Parma  w^as  Infante  of  Spain.  He  was  a 
Bourbon.  Ohoiseul,  d'Aranda,  and  Tanucci  once  more 
appealed  to  the  family  compact.  The  young  Prince  was 
called  upon  to  sacrifice  the  Jesuits  to  the  diabolical  inten- 
tions and  passions  of  the  Prime  Ministers.  He  whom  the 
sect  of  philosophers  had  placed  near  him,  to  rule  ia  his 
name,  only  awaited  their  orders  to  act  in  a  manner  that 
should  outdo  even  them.  It  was  Tillot,  Marquis  of  Felino. 
On  the  14th  of  January,  1768,  he  had  the  Jesuits  trans- 
ported to  the  Roman  States,  without  informing  the  Pope 
of  his  intentions,  and  the  same  edict  that  announced  this 
3xpulsion,  abolished  several  of  the  rights  of  the  Holy  See 
over  the  duchies  of  Parma  and  Piacenza,  and  restrained 
or  annulled  certain  ecclesiastical  privileges  over  which  the 
Pope  alone  had  the  right  to  pronounce. 

The  heart  of  Clement  XIII  was  broken  with  grief.  He 
had  addressed  several  briefs  to  the  Emperor  Joseph  II,  to 
the  Empress  Marie  Therese,  and  to  her  counsellors,  to 
claim  the  protection  of  Austria  for  the  Church  and  for 
the  Holy  See,  so  shamefully  outraged,  and  he  called  their 
attention  to  the  unjust  treatment  to  which  the  society  had 
been  subjected  in  all  parts.  He  also  addressed  a  brief  to 
Cardinal  Sersale,  Archbishop  of  Naples,  and  complained 
that  he,  who  had  witnessed  the  shameful  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits,  the  profanation  of  their  churches,  the  plundering 
of  their  houses,  and  the  irreverent  disposal  of  their  prop- 
erty, had  not  thought  of  giving  information  of  the  same 
to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  the  universal  guardian  of  the 
flock  of  Jesus  Christ. 

On  the  30th  of  January,  1768,*  he  published  a  brief 

*  M.  C.  Joly  gives  the  20th  as  the  date  of  this  brief;  but  de  Eavig- 
nan,  who  reproduces  the  document,  assigns  it  to  the  30th. 


GENERALSHIP   OP    FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  1G5 

concerning-  the  affairs  of  Parma,  of  which  city,  until  then, 
the  Holy  See  had  retained  the  Suzerainet^.  This  brief  an- 
nulled the  decrees  which  were  opposed  to  ecclesiastical 
rights  and  privileges  in  the  duchies,  and  excommunicated 
the  authors  of  these  wicked  acts. 

Clement  XIII  had  dared  to  censure  an  administration 
directed  by  the  Due  de  Choiseul,  and  he  had  to  atone  for 
it.  Choiseul  again  brought  forward  the  family  compact, 
and  caused  all  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  to 
league  themselves  against  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  The 
powers  of  darkness  were  filled  with  exultation.  The 
courts  of  France,  Spain,  Naples,  and  Parma  gave  the 
Pope  the  choice  between  making  reparation  to  the  Duke 
of  Parma  and  annulling  his  brief,  or  seeing  his  states 
invaded  by  their  united  armies.  Clement  XIII  boldly  re- 
fused the  retractation,  which  they  had  the  temerity  to  de- 
mand from  him.  The  combined  powers  persisted  in  their 
exactions,  and,  on  the  16th  of  April,  1768,  the  Spanish 
Ambassador  transmitted  to  the  Pope  a  petition  in  their 
name. 

"Does  this  document,"  said  the  Pope,  "contain  any 
thing  but  the  demand  to  revoke  the  brief?" 

"  No,  most  Holy  Father  ;   it  has  no  other  object." 

"I  am  quite  resolved,"  continued  the  Pope,  "not  to 
outrage  my  conscience,  and  that  is  what  I  should  do  if 
I  revoked  the  brief.  The  threat  to  enter  the  states  of 
the  Church  with  armed  forces  is  useless.  Even  though 
we  had  a  sufficiency  of  troops  to  oppose  them,  we  would 
not  employ  them.  As  common  Father  of  the  faithful,  I 
would  never  go  to  war  with  Christian  princes,  much  less 
with  Catholics.  My  subjects  being  ignorant  of  this  affair, 
I  hope  that  the  sovereigns  will  not  visit  upon  them  their 
disple:isure.  If  they  have  any  design  upon  my  person, 
and  their  intention  be  to  expel  me  from  Rome,  I  declare 
that,  following  the  example  of  my  predecessors,  I  will 
51* 


166  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

choose  exile  rather  than  betray  the  cause  of  religion  and 
of  the  Church." 

At  these  last  words,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  without  al- 
lowing the  Ambassador  an  opportunity  to  reply,  ordered 
the  doors  to  be  thrown  open,  as  a  proof  that  the  audience 
was  at  an  end,  and,  by  a  gesture,  dismissed  him.* 

On  the  11th  of  June,  of  the  same  year,  France  took 
possession  of  Venaissin,  and  Naples  of  Ponte-Corvo.  The 
first  act  of  the  usurpers  was  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits 
whom  they  found  there,  and  the  confiscation  of  their 
property.  There,  as  elsewhere,  they  were  removed  by 
night,  for  fear  of  exciting  a  popular  insurrection,  and 
that  future  generations  might  credit  the  assertion  that 
the  Jesuits  had  brought  about  their  own  expulsion  from 
all  the  states,  as  disturbers  of  the  public  peace. 

"I  do  not  hesitate  to  assert,  and  I  have  looked  at  this  pretty 
closely,"  says  Duclos,  a  philosopher,  and  an  enemy  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  "  that  the  Jesuits  had,  and  still  have,  without  compar- 
ison, more  partisans  than  adversaries.  La  Chalotais  and  Mon- 
clar  alone  have  given  the  example  of  a  voluntary  expulsion.  It 
was  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  many  manoeuvres  in  the  other 
provinces.  Generally  speaking,  they  regretted  the  Jesuits,  and 
would  joyfully  welcome  them  back." 

Duclos  thus  spoke  for  France.  In  Spain,  it  was  the 
same  ;  one  circumstance  proved  it. 

"  On  St.  Charles'  day,"  says  the  Protestant  Coxe,  "  when  the 
monarch  made  his  appearance  before  the  people,  in  the  balcony 
of  his  palace,  they  desired  to  avail  themselves  of  a  custom,  ac- 
cording to  whicli,  on  that  day,  some  public  favor  was  granted,  at 
their  demand  ;  and,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  tlie  whole  court, 
the  multitude,  with  one  accord,  solicited  the  recall  of  the  Jesuits; 
that  permission  should  be  given  them  to  live  in  Spain,  and  to  wear 
the  habit  of  the  secular  clergy.     This  unexpected  incident  greatly 

*  Schall. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RTCCI.  1G7 

disconcerted  the  King;  and,  after  liaving  caused  investigations  to 
be  made,  he  saw  fit  to  banish  the  Cardinal,  Archbishop  of  Toledo, 
and  his  Grand  Vicar,  on  the  charge  of  being  the  abettors  of  this 
tumultuous  petition." 

The  Government,  and  the  King  himself,  felt  hurt  at 
such  a  request,  which  could  not  have  been  caused  by  the 
Jesuits,  and  which  was,  evidently,,  the  free  expression  of 
the  Christian  feelings  of  the  country. 

On  the  18th  of  January,  1769,  the  Spanish  Ambassador 
presented  to  the  Pope  a  petition  praying  for  the  entire 
suppression  of  the  Order  of  Jesus.  Clement  XIII  ex- 
pressed his  deep  sorrow  at  such  an  act,  and  dismissed 
him,  saying,  as  his  eyes  filled  with  tears,  "  I  will  read  this 
petition  "  On  the  20th,  the  Marquis  d'Aubeterre,  French 
Ambassador,  and,  on  the  22d,  Cardinal  Orsini,  presented 
to  His  Holiness  a  similar  demand,  in  the  name  of  Louis 
XV  and  of  the  King  of  Naples.  The  venerable  Pontijf 
dismissed  them  peremptorily.  On  the  28th,  Cardinal  Ne- 
groni said  to  the  assembled  ambassadors,  "  This  last  step 
will  open  the  tomb  of  the  Holy  Father."  The  Cardinal's 
prediction  was  verified. 

Clement  XIII,  plunged  into  the  deepest  affliction,  loaded 
with  insults,  and  racked  with  anguish,  had  resisted,  with 
a  holy  energy  and  heroic  firmness,  all  the  demands  and  all 
the  threats  of  the  enemies  of  the  Church ;  but  his  consti- 
tution became  more  enfeebled  each  day.  On  the  2d  of 
February,  Feast  of  the  Purification,  he  celebrated  the  holy 
sacrifice  with  the  same  seraphic  fervor  which  he  ever 
manifested  during  that  solemn  action;  he  blessed  and 
distributed  the  candles.  During  the  day  he  visited  the 
Blessed  Sacrament,  which  was  exposed  ;  in  the  evening  he 
felt  oppressed,  and  during  that  same  night  passed  from 
this  life  to  eternity,  in  his  seventy-sixth  year. 


168  HISTORY  OF  THE   SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

VIII. 

A  SHORT  time  before  the  decease  of  the  Holy  Pontiff, 
Clement  XIII,  the  Duke  de  Choiseul  wrote  to  the  Marquis 
d'Aubeterre: 

"We  shall  gain  nothing  from  Rome  under  this  Pontificate.  The 
Minister  is  too  obstinate,  and  the  Pope  too  imbecile.  It  is  necessary 
that  we  should  rule  in  these  times  with  a  rod  of  iron,  ■so  as  to  op- 
pose a  head  of  the  same  metal,  which  governs  the  Holy  See.  After 
this  Pope,  we  must  see  to  having  one  ivho  will  suit  the  emergency J^ 

These  few  lines  would  be  sufl&cient  to  convey  an  idea  of 
the  intrigues  which  agitated  the  conclave.  The  cabal  of 
the  Bourbon  Ministers  wished  to  exclude  from  the  elec- 
tion everv  Cardinal  who  had  shown  favor  to  the  Jesuits, 
and  as  the  majority  of  the  Sacred  College  was  favor- 
able to  them,  the  most  odious  and  culpable  manoeuvres 
were  resorted  to  on  the  part  of  the  ambassadors.  That  of 
Spain  had  the  effrontery  to  propose  a  sale,  to  set  a  price 
upon  the  Holy  See  of  St.  Peter.  This  infamy  was  nobly 
repelled  by  the  Cardinals.  Cardinal  Orsini  thus  wrote  to 
Cardinal  de  Bernis: 

"  You  are  an  archbishop,  I  am  a  priest;  we  can  not  take  part  in 
making  a  simoniacal  Pope." 

The  courts  desired  to  exclude  such  a  number  of  Car- 
dinals that  Bernis,  in  a  letter  to  Aubeterre,  on  the  22d  of 
April,  after  having  explained  the  difficulties  caused  in  the 
conclave,  by  the  requests  of  the  princes,  said: 

"It  is  for  the  honor  of  the  crowns  that  I  speak.  Never  before 
have  they  tried  to  elect  a  Pope  by  excluding  more  than  half  of  the 
Sacred  College!  This  is  unprecedented.  It  is  necessary  to  be 
reasonable,  and  not  place  the  Sacred  College  in  the  predicament 
of  having  to  separate  and  to  protest  against  such  a  proceeding. 
It  is  impossible  to  form  a  plan  of  action  upon  a  system  so  generally 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO  RTCCI.  109 

exclusive,  that  it  will  include  only  foiu*  or  five  members,  some  of 
whom  are  too  young.  In  a  word,  what  can  one  do  who  has  the 
choice  of  grasping  at  the  moon,  or  of  rotting  in  a  dungeon?  " 

The  Marquis  d'Aubeterre  replied  to  this  that  the  courts 
would  not,  under  any  consideration,  have  a  Jesuit  Pope. 
He  added: 

"If  a  Pope  should  be  elected  in  spite  of  the  royal  powers,  he 
would  not  be  acknowledged  as  such  by  them.  Let  them  fear  the 
courts,  and  love  and  esteem  your  Eminence;  this  is  what  we  desire." 

Some  days  later,  he  wrote  him  word  that  the  courts  de- 
sired a  philosophic  Pope,  and  he  went  so  far  as  to  say: 
"I  think  a  Pope  of  this  kind — that  is  to  say,  without 
scruple,  holding  no  particular  opinion,  and  only  consult- 
ing his  own  interests — would  suit  the  powers."  But  the 
conclave  made  no  advance.  The  manoeuvres  of  the  in- 
triguers weighed  upon  it,  and  trammelled  the  freedom  of 
election.  The  ambassadors  threatened  to  leave  Rome. 
That  of  France  wrote  to  Cardinal  de  Bernis,  thus: 

"Let  your  Eminence  speak  without  fear.  The  surest  means  to 
prevent  schism  is  to  name  it  boldly  and  frequently.  Be  angry,  if 
necessary.     They  must  be  terrified." 

Thus  it  was  that  a  Choiseul,  a  d'Aranda,  a  Pombal,  and 
all  the  Ministers,  who  had  expelled  and  so  cruelly  treated 
the  Jesuits,  pretended  to  govern  the  Church  during  its  re- 
gency. They  would  coerce  the  Holy  Spirit  to  yield  to 
Satan  the  Presidency  of  the  conclave,  feeling  assured  that, 
in  such  a  case,  they  would  find  their  actions  fully  sanc- 
tioned, the  Society  of  Jesus  abolished,  and  the  Pope 
declared  to  be  their  tool  and  their  slave.  Cardinal  Gan- 
ganelli  neither  expressed  himself  for  nor  against  the  Jes- 
uits;  he  alone  assumed  to  be  neutral.  Cardinal  de  Solis, 
Archbishop  of  Seville,  who  was  entirely  devoted  to  the 
plan  of  the  courts,  and  who  desired,  in  the  name  of  Charles 


170       HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

Ill,  to  demand  from  the  Cardinal  proposed  for  the  Holy 
See,  a  written  promise  to  suppress  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
had,  for  a  few  days,  appeared  to  be  in  secret  correspond- 
ence with  Ganganelli. 

On  the  19th  of  May,  17G9,  Cardinal  Ganganelli  was 
elected,  under  the  title  of  Clement  XIV.  He  was  sixty- 
four  years  old,  and  had  entered  the  Franciscan  Order  at 
an  early  age.  A  friend  of  the  Jesuits,  who  appreciated 
his  merits,  it  was  at  their  recommendation  that  he  was 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  Cardinal.  The  Father-General, 
Ricci,  had  proposed  him  to  Clement  XIII.  Father  An- 
dreucci  had  made  the  necessary  examinations,  and  the 
purple  was  conferred  upon  their  protege. 

On  the  16th  of  June,  d'Alembert  thus  wrote  to  the 
King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  II: 

"  It  is  said  that  the  Jesuits  have  but  little  to  hope  for  from  the 
Franciscan,  Ganganelli,  and  that  St.  Ignatius  is  likely  to  be  sacri- 
ficed by  St.  Francis  of  Assisium.  It  appears  to  me  that  the  holy 
Father,  Franciscan  though  he  be,  would  be  acting  very  foolishly 
thus  to  disband  his  regiment  of  guards,  simply  out  of  complaisance 
to  Catholic  princes.  To  me  it  appears  that  this  treaty  resembles 
that  of  the  wolves  with  the  sheep,  of  which  the  first  condition  was 
that  the  sheep  should  give  up  their  dogs;  it  is  well  known  in  what 
position  they  afterward  found  themselves.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it 
would  be  strange,  Sire,  that  while  their  most  Christian,  most  Cath- 
olic, most  apostolical,  and  very  faithful  Majesties  destroyed  the 
body-guard  of  the  Holy  See,  your  most  heretical  Majesty  should 
be  the  only  one  to  retain  them." 

The  fact  was,  that  Frederick  II  was  better  acquainted 
with  the  secrets  of  his  friends,  the  philosophers,  than  any 
one  else;  hence  he  insisted  on  supporting  the  Jesuits,  in 
spite  of  the  anger,  the  sarcasms,  and  even  the  menaces  of 
the  writers  of  the  Encyclopedia.  The  Emperor  Joseph 
II,  on  the  other  hand,  had  permitted  himself  to  be  led 
into  the  league  against  the  Church,  and  began  to  entertain 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  171 

a  similar  desire  for  the  disbanding  of  the  body-guard  of 
the  Holy  See.  On  the  7th  of  August,  d'Alembert  again 
wrote  to  Frederick  II : 

"  It  is  asserted  that  the  Franciscan  Pope  requires  to  be  much 
importuned  regarding  the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits.  I  am  not 
at  all  surprised  at  it.  Proposing  to  a  Pope  to  abolish  that  brave 
militia,  is  like  suggesting  to  your  Majesty  the  disbanding  of  your 
favorite  guards." 

It  was  impossible  more  explicitly  to  condemn,  in  an- 
ticipation, the  act  itself,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the 
Pope,  who  was  to  execute  it.  "  If  I  sought  to  chastise 
one  of  my  provinces,"  said  Frederick  II,  "I  would  place 
it  under  the  control  of  the  philosophers."  This  was  the 
Providential  chastisement  of  nations.  They  were  to  be 
ruled  by  the  philosophers,  and  the  world  was  to  be  shaken 
even  to  the  gates  of  the  Eternal  City.  Frederick,  who 
was  a  philosopher  for  his  own  pleasure,  and  a  Protestant, 
was  resolved  upon  maintaining  the  Jesuits  in  his  prov- 
inces, and  thus  replied  to  d'Alembert: 

"  The  philosophy  which  is  encouraged  in  our  day  is  more  loudly 
proclaimed  than  ever.  What  progress  has  it  made?  You  will 
reply,  we  have  expelled  the  Jesuits.  I  admit  it;  but  I  can  prove 
to  you,  if  you  so  desire  it,  that  it  was  pride,  private  revenge,  ca- 
bals, and,  in  fact,  self-interest  that  accomplished  the  work." 

Such  admissions  are  great  lessons  for  those  who  are 
misled  by  opinions  and  ideas  at  variance  with  their  con- 
victions, and  which  they  have  adopted  to  save  themselves 
the  trouble  of  thinking  for  themselves. 

The  Pope  refused  to  abolish  the  Society  of  Jesus;  he 
was  conscientiously  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  house  of  Bourbon  became  impatient. 
Cardinal  de  Bernis  wearied  the  Holy  Father  with  his  so- 
licitations. The  Count  de  Kaunitz,  the  Ambassador  of 
Marie  Ther^se,  on  the  other  hand,  implored  him,  in  the 


172  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

name  of  his  sovereion  and  in  the  interests  of  the  Church 
to  preserve  and  protect  the  Society  of  Jesus,  to  the  an- 
nihilation of  which  the  Empress  would  never  consent. 
Clement  XIV  replied  that  he  would  do  all  that  he  could. 
This  took  place  on  the  l-4th  of  June,  1769.  On  the  21st, 
the  Feast  of  St.  Aloysius  Gonzaga,  the  General  of  the 
Jesuits,  in  accordance  with  the  usual  custom  on  this  an- 
niversary, presented  himself  at  the  A'^atican.  The  Pope, 
fearing  to  incur  the  displeasure  of  the  royal  ambassadors 
by  granting  an  audience  which  had  never  been  denied  by 
his  predecessors,  declined  to  receive  Father  Ricci. 

On  the  31st  of  July,  the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Founder  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  Father-General  again  proceeded 
to  the  Vatican,  as  was  the  custom  on  that  day  also.  The 
Pope  refused  to  see  him !  About  this  time,  the  Brief  of 
Indulgences  for  the  missions  of  the  Jesuits  having  to  be 
renewed,  Clement  XIV  dispatched  it  in  the  same  form  as 
that  which  had  been  used  for  several  years  before.  The 
Due  de  Choiseul,  who,  probably,  had  never  in  his  life  read 
a  brief  of  this  description,  lost  his  temper,  and  exclaimed 
to  the  Nuncio  that  the  Pope  had  treated  the  sovereigns 
with  contempt  in  addressing  Father  Ricci  as  his  dearly 
heloved  son,  and  in  so  lauding  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The 
Nuncio  remarked  that  it  was  a  simple  matter  of  form. 
The  Minister  was  not  the  less  offended.  According;  to  his 
view,  the  Jesuits  were  not  entitled  even  to  this  formal- 
ity. No  doubt  he  desired  that  they  should  be  ruled  in 
all  matters,  as  he  himself  desired  to  rule  the  Pope,  with 
a  rod  of  iron.  Choiseul  was  not  the  only  one  who  raised 
his  voice  ao-ainst  the  Brief  of  Indulirences.  The  Ambas- 
sadors  of  the  four  Powers,  and  the  Minister  of  Parma, 
filled  the  city  of  Rome  with  their  complaints  and  threats. 
According  to  them,  this  brief  was  an  insult  to  their  re- 
spective courts. 

Cardinal  de  Bernis  succeeded  the  Marquis  d'Aubeterre 


(JteNERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  173 

ill  the  embassy  at  Rome.  On  the  7th  of  August,  17G9, 
he  was  instructed  by  the  Due  de  Choiseul  to  reiterate  to 
the  Pope  the  desires  of  the  sovereign  princes  of  the 
house  of  Bourbon,  regarding  the  abolition  of  the  Order 
of  St.  Ignatius.  He  added  that  he  would  accord  to  the 
Pontifl'  a  further  delay  of  only  two  months,  at  the  expira- 
tion of  which  time  "  nothing  can  prevent  the  sovereigns 
from  discontinuing  all  intercourse  with  the  Pope,  who  only 
trifles  with  us,  and  is  of  no  service  to  us."  To  this  officia'l 
dispatch,  which  is  too  long  to  insert  here,  the  Due  de 
Choiseul  added  a  private  one,  in  which  we  find  these  lines : 

"  I  do  not  know  whether  it  was  well  to  expel  the  Jesuits  from 
France  and  Spain.  They  have  been  expelled  from  all  the  states 
of  the  house  of  Bourbon.  I  believe  it  was  even  worse,  when  these 
monks  were  gone,  to  cause  so  much  excitement  in  Rome  about  the 
suppression  of  the  Order,  and  to  allow  all  Europe  to  become 
aware  of  the  attempt.  But  such  is  now  the  case.  It  so  happens 
that  the  Kings  of  France,  Spain,  and  Naples  are  at  open  war  with 
the  Jesuits  and  their  partisans.  Shall  they  be  suppressed,  or 
shall  they  not?  Shall  the  crowned  heads  triumph,  or  are  the 
Jesuits  to  win  the  victory?  This  is  the  question  which  now  agi- 
tates the  cabinets,  and  is  the  source  of  the  intrigues,  broils,  and 
troubles  of  all  the  Catholic  courts.  In  fact,  we  can  not  calmly 
look  upon  this  state  of  things  without  being  struck  with  its  im- 
propriety, and  were  I  ambassador  at  Rome,  I  should  feel  humil- 
iated to  see  Father  Ricci  opposing  my  royal  master.' 

Clement  XIV  sensibly  felt  the  difficulties  of  his  po- 
sition. He  was  conscientiously  opposed  to  the  suppression 
of  the  Jesuits,  which  was  urged  upon  him;  and  the  Cath- 
olic princes,  who  insisted  upon  it,  threatened  to  withdraw 
from  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  the  event  of  his  refusing  this 
sacrifice.  He  could  not  confer  with  the  Sacred  College. 
The  great  majority  were  in  favor  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the 
sovereigns  would  venture  all  to  attain  their  ends.  The 
Pope,  then,  was  isolated,  and  could  only  turn  for  advice  to 
52 


174  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

those  Cardinals  who  were  favorable  to  the  royal  coalition, 
lest  he  should  excite  the  susceptibility  of  the  princes, 
whom  he  feared.  He  wished  to  gain  time.  To  Louis  XV 
he  wrote  : 

"  I  can  neither  censure  nor  abolish  an  Institute  which  has 
been  commended  by  nineteen  of  my  predecessors.  Still  less  can 
I  do  so,  since  it  has  been  confirmed-  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  for, 
according  to  3'^our  French  maxims,  the  General  Council  is  above 
the  Pope.  If  it  be  so  desired,  I  will  call  together  a  General  Coun- 
cil, in  which  every  thing  shall  be  fully  and  fairly  discussed,  for 
and  against." 

The  Ministers  would  not  listen  to  all  these  delays,  and, 
in  order  to  put  an  end  to  them,  they  went  so  far  as  to  say 
to  the  Pope  that  the  King  of  Spain  had  become  so  excited 
and  exasperated,  that  it  was  feared  that  he  would  lose  his 
reason,  and  that  the  only  hope  of  averting  such  a  misfor- 
tune, was  a  formal  promise  that  the  Society  of  Jesus 
should  be  suppressed.  Poor,  indeed,  and  weak  must  be 
the  mind  of  a  sovereign,  to  preserve  which,  it  is  necessary 
to  sacrifice  an  entire  religious  Order  of  more  than  twenty- 
two  thousand  apostles. 

"This  suppression  will  be  my  death,"  exclaimed  Clem- 
ent XIV.  Cardinal  de  Bernis  gave  no  peace  to  the  un- 
happy Pontiff.  The  ambassadors  of  the  other  courts 
threatened  to  have  him  recalled  by  his  government,  if  he 
did  not  know  how  to  induce  the  Pope  to  enter  into  an  of- 
ficial engagement,  and  Bernis,  who,  above  all  other  things, 
valued  his  embassy,  urged  and  importuned  the  Pope  so 
earnestly  and  pertinaciously,  always  pleading  the  imperilled 
reason  of  Charles  III,  that  he,  at  length,  succeeded  in  ex- 
torting from  the  Sovereign  Pontiff"  a  letter  addressed  to 
that  prince.  On  the  29th  of  April,  1770,  the  Cardinal 
was  able  to  inform  the  Due  de  Choiseul : 

'•This  letter  which  I  have  caused  the  Pope  to  write  to  His  Catho- 
lic Majesty,  binds  him  so  iri*evocably,  that,  unless  the  court  of 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  175 

Spain  change  its  views,  the  Pope  will  be  compelled,  in  spite  of 
himself,  to  complete  the  affair." 

Of  this  promise,  the  King  of  Spain  and  his  Ministers 
exacted  the  speedy  fulfilment.  But  Clement  XIV  con- 
tinued to  temporize,  notwithstanding  the  system  of  intim- 
idation adopted  to  coerce  him,  and  in  spite  of  the  absurd 
accounts  which  they  gave  him  of  the  intrigues  and  con- 
spiracies of  the  Jesuits.  They  even  went  so  far  as  to  make 
him  believe  his  life  to  be  in  danger.  On  the  7th  of  July, 
1770,  the  King  of  Prussia  thus  wrote  to  Voltaire  : 

"  That  good  Franciscan  of  the  Vatican  leaves  me  my  dear  Jes- 
uits, who  are  persecuted  every-where  else.  I  will  preserve  the 
precious  seed,  so  as  to  be  able,  one  day,  to  supply  it  to  such  aa 
may  desire  again  to  cultivate  this  rare  plant." 

Frederick  was  a  Protestant  and  a  philosopher,  but  he 
was  also  a  King,  and  he  was  aware  that  the  coalition  had 
only  one  end  in  view,  the  subversion  of  all  constituted  au- 
thority. 

On  the  25th  of  December,  of  the  same  year,  Choiseul 
was  disgraced  and  banished,  and  the  Due  d'Aiguillon,  who 
succeeded  him,  exiled  the  Parliament.  He  was  friendly, 
it  was  said,  to  the  Jesuits,  but  he  sacrificed  them  to  his 
ambition.  His  desire  was  to  please  the  King  of  Spain,  so 
that  he  might  retain  his  position  ;  and,  in  order  to  flatter 
that  weak-minded  prince,  he  acted  against  his  convictions, 
and  joined  the  enemies  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He  in- 
structed Cardinal  de  Bernis  to  second  the  efforts  of  the 
ambassador  of  Charles  III. 

In  1772,  the  Spanish  Ambassador  at  Rome  was  superseded 
by  Don  Jose  Moniiio,  Count  of  Florida  Blanca,  who,  in 
order  to  render  his  plans  the  more  successful,  had  bribed 
the  household  of  the  Sovereiun  Pontiff,  and  undertook  to 
overpower  the  Pope  by  his  indomitable  persistence.  The 
Pontiff  trembled  in  his  presence.     On  one  occasion,  when, 


176  HISTORY    or    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

with  sacrilegious  audacity,  he  menaced  the  Pope,  Clement 
XIV,  alarmed,  begged  and  implored  him  for  yet  a  little 
time. 

"No,  Holy  Father,"  answered  the  brutal  Moniiio.  "It 
is  in  extracting  a  tooth  by  the  root  that  we  cure  the  pain. 
By  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  conjure  your  Holiness  to 
look  upon  me  as  a  man  who  ardently  desires  peace.  But 
beware,  lest  my  master,  the  King,  approve  the  project 
which  has  been  entertained  by  more  than  one  court,  the 
suppression  of  all  the  religious  orders!  If  you  would  save 
them,  do  not  confound  their  cause  with  that  of  the  Jesuits." 

"Ah  !  "  replied  the  Pontiff,  "  I  have  for  a  long  time 
thought  that  this  was  what  they  were  aiming  at !  They 
seek  even  more — the  entire  destruction  of  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion— schism,  perhaps  heresy.  Such  are  their  secret  de- 
signs." 

And  then  he  attempted  to  appeal  to  the  heart  of  hia 
tormentor ;  but  heart  he  had  none.  He  essayed  to  pic- 
ture to  him  his  rapidly  approaching  death,  but  the  relent- 
less ambassador  affected  the  greatest  incredulity.  The 
Pope,  baring  one  of  his  arms,  showed  it  to  him,  covered 
with  sores  resembling  the  leprosy. 

"  See,"  said  he  ;    "  so  it  is  with  my  whole  body." 

The  cruel  IMonifio  was  pitiless  !  What  did  he  care  for 
the  life  of  the  Pope?  That  which  he  sought — that  which 
he  was  resolved  to  obtain — was  the  suppression  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  The  accomplishment  of  this  iniquitous 
end  was  to  be  his  victory. 

Such  scenes  as  these  were  renewed  daily  by  the  im- 
placable Florida  Blanca,  who,  henceforth,  gave  no  rest  to 
the  unhappy  PontiiF. 

The  King  of  Spain,  feeling  convinced  that  Clement 
XIV  would  no  longer  resist  if  the  Empress  Marie  Ther^se 
abandoned  the  Jesuits,  directed  the  entire  force  of  his 
infernal   batteries   in  that  direction.      Joseph    II   finally 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  177 

promised  to  obtain  the  consent  of  his  mother,  the  Queen, 
on  condition  that  the  possessions  of  the  Jesuits  should 
accrue  to  him.  The  four  Powers  agreed  to  this.  Joseph 
II  gave  no  peace  nor  rest  to  his  mother.  He  insisted 
upon  his  demand  until  he  obtained  it,  for  Marie  Ther^se, 
wearied  and  worn  out  at  last,  weeping,  placed  her  signa- 
ture to  the  fatal  decree. 

On  the  21st  of  July,  1773,  the  bells  of  the  Gesu  were 
heard  to  toll  at  an  unusual  hour, 

*' Why  do  they  ring  at  the  Gesu?"  asked  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff. 

"  They  announce  the  novena  in  honor  of  St.  Ignatius, 
Holy  Father." 

"  Not  so,"  replied  the  Pope,  in  a  tone  of  deep  sorrow. 
"  The  bells  of  the  Gesu  are  not  ringing  for  the  saints  ; 
they  are  tolling  for  the  dead  !" 

On  that  very  day,  the  21st  of  July,  1773,  Cardinal 
Marefoschi  laid  before  Clement  XIV  the  Brief  Dominus 
ac  Redemptor^  by  which  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  sup- 
pressed throughout  the  entire  world.  The  Pope  affixed 
his  signature,  "and,"  says  Cardinal  Pacca,  in  his  memoirs, 
"  after  signing  it,  he  dashed  the  document  to  one  side, 
cast  the  pen  to  another,  and,  from  that  moment,  was  de- 
mented." This  signature  had  cost  the  unhappy  Pontiff  his 
reason  !  From  that  day,  he  possessed  it  only  at  intervals, 
and  then  only  to  deplore  his  misfortunes. 

In  view  of  the  future,  he  would  not  suppress  the  so- 
ciety by  a  Bull  which  would  be  binding  upon  his  suc- 
cessors. He  had  suppressed  it  by  a  brief,  which  could 
be  revoked  without  difficulty,  whenever  public  feeling 
might  allow  it.  Moreover,  such  precautions  were  taken 
that  the  usual  formalities  for  its  publication  and  canonical 
execution  were  not  observed.  Thus,  instead  of  being 
published  on  the  same  day,  as  is  usual,  three  weeks  were 
allowed  to  elapse.  Instead  of  being  placarded  in  all  the 
52* 


178  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

public  places  required,  to  give  it  the  full  force  and  value 
of  a  voUintary  act  emanating  from  the  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
it  was  neither  posted  in  the  Carapo  di  Fiori,  nor  upon  the 
doors  of  the  Basilica  of  St.  Peter.  The  letter  sent  to  the 
bishops,  in  forwarding  the  brief,  did  not  command  them 
to  notify  the  same  to  the  religious  interested  ;  it  merely 
i-€C07iimended  them  to  do  so. 

All  these  informalities  must  have  been  foreseen  and 
contemplated  by  the  Pope,  in  order  that  the  act,  thus 
forced  from  him  by  threats  and  intimidation,  might  be 
the  more  easily  revoked.  But  the  holy  religious,  whom 
this  brief  was  about  to  affect,  were  not  the  ones  to  take 
advantage  of  such  irregularities.  Devoted  to  the  defense 
of  the  Church  and  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See,  they 
did  not  hesitate  to  set  a  heroic  example  of  the  submis- 
sion they  had  inculcated  for  more  than  two  centuries. 
They  belonged  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and,  like  their 
cliief,  they  would  be  obedient,  even  unto  death! 

IX. 

"The  religious  receives  a  new  birth  and  a  second  baptism  in 
the  pi'ofession  of  a  life  and  rules  to  which  a  heavenly  vocation 
has  consecrated  his  mind,  his  heart,  and  his  very  existence. 
There,  by  a  love  which  finds  its  source  in  supernatural  grace,  he 
forms  for  himself  ties  which  are  stronger,  sweeter,  and  better  far 
than  those  which  attach  him  to  his  native  soil,  or  to  the  most  in- 
timate relations  of  the  domestic  circle.  The  vows;  the  regular 
discipline;  the  common  mode  of  life;  the  spirit  which  vivifies  the 
body  and  infuses  itself  into  each  member;  the  inheritance  re- 
ceived from  the  saints  who  led  a  similar  life,  in  the  discharge  of 
the  same  duties,  to  the  same  end  ;  the  irrevocable  sacrifice  which 
we  make  of  our  entire  future  to  the  society  that  adopts  us  as  its 
children ;  the  profound  security  Avhich,  under  its  maternal  au- 
thority, we  feel  in  all  places  and  at  all  times,  and  under  the  most 
trying  necessities  of  the  soul  or  of  the  body — all  these  help  to 
fortify  that  love  which  is  stronger  than  nature,  and  more  power- 
ful   than    death,  and   which,  in   religion,   we  associate   with  our 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO   RICCI.  179 

brethren,  with  the  hibors  and  pursuits  of  the  society,  with  all  its 
successes  and  its  reverses,  and  even  with  its  very  existence. 

'*  The  love  of  the  society,  the  grace  of  the  society,  the  union  of 
the  society,  are  the  result  of  those  hidden  gifts  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  explain,  or  even  to  comprehend,  save  by  those  transformed 
individuals  who  constitute  this  religious  family.  So,  when  its 
dissolution  is  decreed,  when  vocations  are  destroyed,  the  death 
sentence  is  pronounced,  an  unutterable  martyrdom  is  accom- 
plished. The  religious,  ceasing  to  exist  as  such,  and  remaining, 
nevertheless,  attached  to  his  vocation,  is  a  being  suddenly  disin- 
herited here  below  of  treasures  a  thousand  times  more  precious 
to  him  than  country  or  family — a  thousand  times  more  so  tLau 
his  very  existence.  This  sorrow  is  widely  different  from  that 
caused  by  banishment  and  exile."  * 

These  eloquent  lines  of  the  venerable  Father  de  Ravig- 
nan  may  convey  some  idea  of  the  heavy  affliction  which 
was  about  to  fall  upon  each  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  So- 
ciet}'  of  Jesus,  to  the  remotest  part  of  the  world. 

On  the  16th  of  August,  1773,  toward  nine  o'clock  at 
night,  the  prelate  Macedonio,  accompanied  by  soldiers  and 
agents  of  the  police,  proceeded  to  the  Gesii,  and  notified 
to  the  General,  Father  Ricci,  the  suppression  of  his  Order 
throughout  the  world.  After  having  read  the  Brief,  the 
agents  placed  their  official  seal  upon  the  archives,  the  pa- 
pers of  the  Fathers,  the  account  books,  the  sacristies,  etc. 

Similar  steps  were  taken  in  all  the  other  houses  of  the 
society  in  Rome.  Then  followed  a  scene  of  pillage  diffi- 
cult to  describe.  Father  Ricci  was  conducted,  a  prisoner, 
to  the  English  College.  The  assistants  and  professed 
members  were  distributed  in  other  religious  establish- 
ments. 

On  the  22d  of  September,  the  General,  his  assistants ; 
Father  Comelli,  Secretary-General ;  Fathers  Le  Forestier, 
Zaccharia,  Gauthier,  and  Faure  were,  by  authority  fiom 

«-  Clement  XIII  and  Clement  XIV. 


180  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

the  Pope,  confined  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Notwith 
standing  the  Pope's  mental  incapacity,  all  was  done  in 
bis  name.  The  trial  commenced.  The  enemies  of  th*^ 
feociety  knew  very  well  that  they  had  no  grounds  of  acc» 
sation,  and  that  they  could  adduce  no  proofs  of  culpabiliiy 
against  it.  All  the  papers  and  documents,  even  those  of 
the  most  private  nature,  were  in  the  possession  of  the 
judges.  The  archives,  from  the  very  days  of  St.  Ignatius 
down  to  the  present  time,  were  at  their  disposal.  The 
greatest  secrecy  had  been  employed  in  eifecting  the  sup- 
pression, so  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  the  Jesuits  re- 
taining or  secreting  any  papers  which  might  compromise 
them.  It  would,  therefore,  have  been  the  easiest  thing  in 
the  world,  had  any  guilt  attached  to  the  Jesuits,  to  produce 
evidences  of  the  fact,  and  thus  justify  the  extreme  meas- 
ures resorted  to  against  the  Institute.  No  such  evidence 
was  produced. 

Thus,  to  sacrifice  the  very  existence  of  over  twenty-two 
thousand  religious  for  the  sole  object  of  gratifying  four 
princes,  who  permitted  themselves  to  be  ruled  by  impious 
ministers,  is  a  matter  of  history  which  future  generations 
will  find  difl&culty  in  believing. 

That  which  was  more  particularly  sought  for  at  the 
Gesu,  and  in  all  the  other  houses  of  the  Jesuits,  was  their 
treasure.  So  much  had  been  heard  of  their  wealth,  of 
the  gold  mines  of  Paraguay,  and  of  the  immense  fortunes 
brought  into  the  Order  by  the  great  ones  of  the  w^orld, 
that  the  palm  of  each  one  itched  in  the  sanguine  expect- 
ation of  reaping  a  goodly  share  of  the  booty.  Nor  were 
the  examinations  long,  being  confined  exclusively  to  the 
latter  point.  Andreotti,  the  advocate,  interrogated  the 
Father-General  as  follows,  merely  for  the  sake  of  form : 

"  Has  any  alteration  been  made  in  the  Institute,  under 
your  Generalship?" 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  181 

"  None  whatever.  I  have  been  careful  to  maintain  it 
as  I  found  it." 

"Did  you  find  any  abuses  in  the  Order?" 

"  Thanks  to  Divine  Providence,  there  were  no  general 
abuses.  On  the  contrary,  great  charity  pervaded  the  so- 
ciety, as  is  evident  from  the  fact  that,  during  fifteen  years 
of  great  trials  and  tribulations,  there  were  neither  dis- 
putes nor  internal  strife,  and  all  remained  warmly  attached 
to  their  state  of  life,  although,  on  that  account,  they  were 
subjected  to  great  persecution." 

"Do  3'ou  consider  yourself,  since  the  suppression  of  the 
Order,  deprived  of  all  right  to  exercise  any  authority?" 

"  I  am  fully  persuaded  of  it.  I  should  be  insane,  did  I 
imagine  any  thing  else." 

"  What  authority  do  you  consider  you  would  have  pos- 
sessed, if  the  Pope,  instead  of  abolishing  the  society,  had 
pursued  another  course?" 

"  That  authority  which  might  have  been  accorded  to  me 
by  the  Pope,  and  no  other.  But  I  have  sufficiently  an- 
swered these  last  questions,  which  are  merely  on  matters  of 
interior  consciousness,  and  not  amenable  to  the  judgment 
of  man." 

"Where  are  the  treasures  of  the  Order?" 

"  We  have  no  treasures." 

"  Have  you  any  property  or  money  concealed  in  the 
vaults  of  the  Gesii?  Have  you  sent  any  money  away 
from  Rome  ?"  . 

"  We  have  nothing  concealed  in  the  vaults  of  the  Gesu, 
nor  have  we  sent  a  single  cent  away  from  Rome  for  safe- 
keeping. We  have  no  deposit  in  any  bank.  The  idea 
that  we  have  treasures  concealed,  is  only  a  vague  popular 
rumor,  destitute  of  foundation,  set  afloat,  probably,  by 
enemies,  or  caused  by  the  splendor  of  our  churches.  It 
is  a  dream,  a  mere  infatuation,  a  mania,  and  I  can  scarcely 


182  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

comprehend  how  people  of  sense  can  attach  any  import- 
ance to  such  a  fable.  After  all  the  searches  -that  have 
been  made,  as  well  in  Rome  as  elsewhere,  there  should  be 
no  longer  any  doubt  of  the  utter  falsity  of  the  rumor. "^ 

The  other  prisoners  were  also  examined,  for  form's 
sake,  without  eliciting  any  information  relative  to  the 
treasures,  which  existed  only  in  the  imaginations  of  the 
enemies  of  the  society.  The  most  minute  searches  were 
made,  but  in  vain.  No  treasures,  no  compromising  doc- 
uments were  to  be  found — nothing  that  could  justify  the 
suppression  of  the  Order,  or  the  detention  of  the  victims 
in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  and  elsewhere. 

The  Pope,  whose  mental  excitement  was  great,  fre- 
quently paced  his  chamber  to  and  fro,  exclaiming,  "  Mercy  ! 
mercy  !  they  forced  me  to  this  step  !  Compuhus  feci!  com- 
pulsus  feci!  ^^  He  was  racked  by  remorse,  in  spite  of  his 
aberration  of  intellect,  and  could  find  no  rest  by  night  or 
day.  "  Poor  Pope ! "  exclaimed  St.  Alphonsus  di  Liguori ; 
"poor  Pope!  what  could  he  do,  urged,  as  he  was,  by  the 
threats  of  those  crowned  heads  ! " 

The  brief  had  been  addressed  to  the  episcopate  as  well 
as  to  the  courts.  Christopher  de  Beaumont,  Archbishop 
of  Paris,  on  the  24th  of  April,  177-i,  wrote  to  the  Pope,  in 
the  name  of  the  clergy  of  France,  to  submit  to  him  the 
reasons  which  had  decided  the  French  episcopate  never 
to  sanction  the  publication  of  the  brief.  We  regret  that 
we  can  not  reproduce  the  document  of  the  Archbishop, 
which  will  be  found  in  the  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
by  M.  Cretineau  Jolij. 

This  brief,  which  the  bishops  of  France  rejected,  caused 
the  enemies  of  the  Church  to  exult,  from  the  simple  fact 
that  it  suppressed  the  Society  of  Jesus ;  but  it  gave  um- 


*  Clement  XIII  and  Clement  XIV,  by  the  Rev.  Father  de  Ravig- 
nan. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATIIRR  LORENZO   RICCI.  183 

brage  to  the  sovereigns  who  had  exacted  it  from  the  weak 
and  terrified  Pontiflf.  What  displeased  them  was,  that  it 
neither  condemned  the  teachings  of  the  Jesuits  nor  their 
conduct,  no  other  cause  being  assigned  for  the  suppression 
than  the  will  of  the  four  sovereigns  ;  and,  moreover,  it  could 
be  annulled.  The  King  of  Spain  loudly  complained.  The 
King  of  Naples  prohibited  its  publication  by  the  bishops, 
under  pai)i  of  death.  Switzerland  refused  to  deprive  the 
Jesuits  of  the  colleges  which  they  directed  in  its  cantons, 
and  the  King  of  Prussia,  after  issuing  a  decree  forbidding 
the  publication  of  the  brief,  thus  wrote  from  Potsdam, 
under  date  of  the  13th  of  September,  1773,  to  his  agent 
at  Home  : 

"Abbe  Columbiui,  you  will  inform  all  who  desire  to  know  the 
fact,  but  without  ostentation  or  aft'ectation,  and  you  will,  moreover, 
seek  an  opportunity  of  signifying  the  same  to  the  Pope  and  the 
chief  Minister,  that,  with  regard  to  the  Jesuits,  I  am  resolved  to 
retain  them  in  my  states.  In  the  treaty  of  Breslau,  I  guaranteed 
the  status  quo  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  I  have  never  found  bet- 
ter priests  in  every  respect.  You  will  further  add,  that,  as  I  belong 
to  the  class  of  heretics,  the  Pope  can  not  relieve  me  from  the  obli- 
gation of  keeping  my  word,  nor  from  the  duty  of  a  king  and  of  an 
honest  man." 

This  last  stroke  was  a  cutting  one  to  the  Pope,  and  the 
conduct  of  this  heretical  Prince  was  a  home-thrust  at  the 
Catholic  sovereigns. 

The  Dutch  Calvinists  and  Jansenists  had  a  medal 
struck  in  honor  of  the  great  Pope  GaiiganelU^  to  whom 
they  sent  it,  accompanied  by  their  hypocritical  appro- 
bation. The  Holy  Father's  mental  condition  did  not  en- 
tirely prevent  him  from  appreciating  all  the  humiliation  of 
such  a  mark  of  distinction,  and  he  might  be  heard  utter- 
ing, "Mercy!  mercy!  Compuhus  feciV  And  St.  Al- 
phonsus  di  Liguori  said,  "Poor  Pope!  We  can  only 
respect  and  admire  the  judgments  of  God ;  but,  I  declare 


184  HISTORY  OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

that,  if  there  remain  but  one  sinsjle  Jesuit,  he  will  suffice 
to  re-establish  the  society.  Poor  Pope  !  I  cease  not  to 
pray  for  him  !  " 

When  the  Empress  of  Russia  had  conquered  that  part 
of  Poland  known  as  White  Russia,  she  guaranteed  to  her 
new  subjects  the  toleration  of  Catholic  worship.  She 
found  the  Society  of  Jesus  established  on  a  firm  basis, 
and  greatly  beloved  in  that  province.  She  permitted 
them  to  continue  there  in  full  security,  in  spite  of  the 
decree  of  the  Czar,  Peter  I,  ordering  their  banishment. 
Upon  the  receipt  of  the  Brief  of  Suppression,  the  Jesuits 
of  White  Russia  wrote  to  the  Empress,  asking  permission 
to  submit  to  its  provisions.  "  In  promptly  obeying,"  said 
they  to  her,  "  we  shall  be  showing  ourselves  as  faithful 
to  your  Majesty,  who  permits  its  execution,  as  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  who  prescribes  it  to  us." 
Catharine  at  once  replied  to  the  Provincial,  Father  Cas- 
simir  Sobolewski  : 

"  You  and  the  other  Jesuits  are  bound  to  obey  the  Pope  in  mat- 
ters of  doctrine.  In  all  things  else,  you  are  bound  to  obey  your 
sovereigns.  I  perceive  that  you  are  scrupulous.  I  will  write  to 
my  Ambassador  at  WarsaAv,  that  he  may  confer  with  the  Pope's 
Nuncio,  in  order  that  your  scruples  may  be  removed.  May  God 
have  you  in  His  holy  keeping." 

Clement  XIV  was  a  prey  to  remorse.  His  reason, 
which  had  forsaken  him,  at  times  returned,  thus  adding 
to  his  w^retchedness.  It  was  during  one  of  these  lucid 
intervals  that  he  received  the  dispatch  from  the  prelate 
Garampi,  his  Nuncio  at  Warsaw,  and  the  expressed  desire 
of  Catharine  to  preserve  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Her 
determination  to  oppose  the  publication  of  the  brief  which 
suppressed  it,  seemed  to  afford  him  some  consolation.  It 
was  like  a  plank  to  the  shipwrecked  mariner.  He  took 
advantage  of  this  opportunity  to  restore  an  appearance  of 
vitality  to  the  Order,  so  highly  approved  by  all  his  pred 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LORENZO    RICCI.  185 

ecessovs,  and  proclaimed  holy  by  the  Council  of  Trent. 
He  addressed  a  rescript  to  the  Bishop  of  Wiliia,  by 
which  he  authorized  the  Jesuits  of  White  Kussia  to  re- 
main ill  statu  quo  until  further  decision.  This  rescript, 
which  was  secretly  forwarded  to  the  Nuncio  at  Warsaw, 
was  sent  by  the  latter  to  the  Bishop  of  Wilna,  who,  in 
turn,  remitted  it  to  the  Empress.  Catharine  published  it, 
and,  like  the  King  of  Prussia,  openly  asserted  her  sym- 
pathy for  those  religious  whom  the  Catholic  sovereigns 
had  expelled  from  their  states.  Thus,  while  Catholic 
princes  banished  an  Order  so  devoted  to  the  Holy  See, 
heretical  and  schismatic  princes  cordially  supported  it! 
"  JVie  finger  of  God  is  here!"  was  the  expression  of  Pope 
Paul  III,  after  having  examined  the  constitutions  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  And,  only  a  short  while  before,  our 
Lord,  in  pointing  out  His  Cross  to  the  holy  founder  and 
his  first  followers,  in  the  little  chapel  of  La  Storta,  had 
said  to  them,  "I  will  befriend  you."  Since  that  day,  the 
society  has  continued  to  bear  the  cross,  and  Jesus,  in  turn, 
has  ever  been  favorable  to  the  society.  It  will  be  pre- 
served, while  those  who  seek  its  destruction  shall  be  cast 
down. 

X. 

On  the  22d  of  September,  1774,  from  early  dawn,  Clem- 
ent XIV  was  in  possession  of  his  recovered  faculties.  They 
had  forced  him,  some  few  days  before,  to  create,  in  jjetto, 
eleven  Cardinals,  all  of  whom  were  nominated  by  the  ene- 
mies  of  the  Church,  with  the  design  of  influencing  the 
next  conclave.  Cardinal  Malvezzi  profited  by  this  lucid 
interval,  during  which  the  mind  of  the  PontiiF  appeared 
to  have  returned  in  all  its  vigor,  to  beg  of  His  Holi- 
ness to  confirm  the  promotions  desired  by  the  four  courts, 
in  order  to  secure  them  the  majority  in  the  conclave. 
"  Never  1  "  exclaimed  the  Pope.  "  I  am  going  to  eternity, 
53 


186  HISTORY  or    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

and    I    know  the    cause!"      The   Cardinal  still  insisted 
The  dying  Pontiff  strenuously  persevered  in  his  refusal. 

On  the  21st  of  September,  1774,  St.  Alphonsus  di 
Liguori,  after  offering  up  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the  mass, 
laid  himself  down  upon  a  lounge,  where  he  continued, 
motionless  and  speechless,  during  the  following  day  and 
night.  His  attendants,  being  at  a  loss  to  account  for 
this  protracted  but  serene  slumber,  remained  in  close  and 
constant  attendance  upon  him.  They  wished  to  arouse 
him,  but  his  Vicar-General,  John  Nicholas  di  Kubino,  in- 
terposed, directing  them  not  to  disturb  him,  without, 
however,  losing  sight  of  him.  On  the  morning  of  the 
22d,  between  eight  and  nine  o'clock,  he  awoke,  rang  the 
bell,  and,  perceiving  the  bewildered  looks  of  his  attend- 
ants, asked  : 

"What  is  the  matter?" 

"  Why,  your  Lordship  has  remained  for  nearly  two 
days  in  a  state  of  total  unconsciousness,  scarcely  showing 
any  signs  of  life." 

"  You  thought  I  was  asleep,  but  such  is  not  the  fact," 
said  the  saint.  *•  I  went  to  assist  the  Pope,  who  is  no 
more." 

It  was  afterward  ascertained  that,  at  the  very  moment 
that  the  holy  bishop  awoke  from  his  trance  and  rang  the 
bell,  the  Pope,  Lorenzo  Ganganelli,  breathed  his  last, 
and  that  he  died  a  holy  death. 

The  enemies  of  the  Jesuits  had  the  efirontery  to  accuse 
them  of  having  poisoned  him,  never,  for  a  moment,  reflect- 
ing on  the  absurdity  of  such  a  charge.  What  interest 
could  they  have  had  in  poisoning  the  Pope,  after  he  had 
suppressed  their  Order?  They  who  accuse  them  of  sub- 
tlety and  craftiness  should,  before  supposing  them  guilty 
of  such  a  crime,  determine  what  benefit  it  would  be  to 
them.  This  fearful  insinuation  created  so  much  excite- 
ment, and  was,  in  truth,  so  revolting  to  many,   that  its 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  LORENZO  RICCL     187 

falsity  had  to  be  established  by  the  testimony  of  men  of 
learning  and  of  unimpeachable  veracity.  And  Providence 
permitted  this,  in  order  once  more  to  show  the  evil  in- 
tentions of  the  enemies  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The 
King  of  Prussia  was  not  so  unjust.  He  wrote  to  d'Alem- 
bert,  under  date  of  November  15th,  1774  : 

"I  beg  of  you  not  to  lend  a  willing  ear  to  the  calumnies  which 
are  so  freely  circulated  against  our  good  Fathers.  Nothing  is 
more  unfounded  than  the  report  of  their  having  poisoned  the  Pope. 
He  was  much  afflicted,  on  announcing  to  the  Cardinals  the  restitu- 
tion of  Avignon,  to  find  that  no  one  congratulated  him,  and  that 
intelligence  of  such  importance  to  the  Holy  See  was  received  so 
coldly.  A  3'oung  girl  had  foretold  that  the  Pope  would  be  pois- 
oned on  a  certain  day ;  but  do  you  believe  that  this  child  was  in- 
spired? It  was  not  because  of  this  prophecy  that  the  Pope  died, 
but  in  consequence  of  an  incurable  bodily  affection.  A  post-mor- 
tem examination  was  made,  and  no  trace  of  poison  was  to  be 
found.  But  he  frequently  reproached  himself  with  his  weakness 
in  sacrificing  an  order  such  as  that  of  the  Jesuits  to  the  whims 
of  his  rebellious  children.  He  was  morose  and  irritable  during 
the  latter  part  of  his  life,  which  tended  materially  to  shorten  his 
days." 

Cardinal  Angelo  Braschi,  a  former  pupil  of  the  Jesuits, 
and  their  friend,  was  unanimously  elected  by  the  conclave, 
on  the  15th  of  February,  1775,  under  the  title  of  Pius 
VI.  This  election,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Sacred  Col- 
lege, was  a  sort  of  protest  against  the  brief  which  had 
been  issued  by  Pope  Clement  XIY.  Pius  VI  could  not 
at  once  annul  this  brief.  He  was  necessitated,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  change  of  circumstances,  to  allow  it  to  re- 
main in  force  ;  but  he  was  determined  to  modify,  as  far 
as  he  could,  the  unfortunate  position  of  the  victims  of 
impiety. 

We  will  not  attempt  to  depict  the  affliction  of  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Asia  and  in  the  Indies, 
on  learning  the  suppression  of  their  Order.     That  grief 


188  HISTORY    or    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

was  bitter,  inexpressible.  But  not  a  murmur,  not  a  word 
of  complaint !  On  the  contrary,  on  all  sides  were  to  be  seen 
the  greatest  resignation,  humility  and  obedience,  that  might 
be  called  sublime.  The  Society  of  Jesus,  it  is  true,  could  be 
suppressed,  but  never  could  that  spirit  which  it  had  incul- 
cated be  extinguished.  At  the  time  when  this  cruel  blow 
was  being  daily  looked  for  in  France,  two  missionaries  were 
about  to  start  for  China  on  board  French  government  ves- 
sels;  for,  if  science  no  longer  loved  the  Jesuit,  it  still 
needed  his  learning,  and  was  happy  to  boast  of  the  benefits 
derived  from  his  erudition  and  skill.  It  was,  therefore,  in 
the  cause  of  science,  that  the  government  again  sent  the 
Jesuits  to  the  far  East.  The  Archbishop  of  Paris  remarked 
to  the  two  Fathers  that,  as  the  brief  might  be  published 
at  any  moment,  it  was,  perhaps,  imprudent  for  them  to 
embark.  They  replied  that  obedience  was  not  obliged  to 
take  counsel  of  prudence,  and  that,  as  the  suppression  had 
not  been  published,  they  would  set  out  on  their  journey. 
On  their  arrival  at  Macao,  the  bishop  of  that  city  gave 
them  notice  of  the  brief,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
could  see  in  the  port  the  very  vessels  which  the  Emperor 
of  China  had  sent  to  convey  them  to  Pekin!  It  was  no 
longer  possible  for  them  to  proceed  to  China  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  religious.  They  were  aware  that  to  refuse  an 
Imperial  favor  was  equivalent  to  high  treason,  and  that 
the  intention  of  the  Emperor  was  to  elevate  them  to  the 
rank  of  Mandarins.  Thus,  they  not  only  ran  the  risk  of 
incurring  for  themseves  the  Imperial  anger,  but  likewise 
of  placing  their  colleagues  in  a  like  position.  Nothing 
could  overcome  their  spirit  of  submission.  "We  were 
resolved  to  die,"  wrote  one  of  them,  "rather  than  disgrace 
the  society  by  opposing  the  Pope  under  such  critical  cir- 
cumstances." On  hearing  of  the  annihilation  of  the  so- 
ciety, Father   Hallerstein,  President  of  the  Tribunal  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  LORENZO  RICCI.  189 

Muthematics  at  Pekin,  and  two  other  Jesuits,  died  of  ex- 
cessive grief.* 

The  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Father  Lorenzo 
Ricci,  was  seventy-two  years  of  age.  He  was  broken 
down  by  sorrows  and  continued  suffering,  and  felt  that, 
at  last,  the  termination  of  his  mortal  career  was  approach- 
ing. On  the  19th  of  November,  he  requested  that  the 
last  sacraments  might  be  administered  to  him  ;  and,  in 
the  presence  of  the  imprisoned  Fathers  and  of  the  officers 
and  soldiers  of  St.  Angelo,  the  aged  and  holy  religious, 
who,  for  the  time,  appeared  to  have  regained  his  usual 
strength  and  vigor,  read,  in  a  distinct  and  firm  voice,  the 
protestation  of  his  innocence  and  the  exj^ression  of  his 
sublime  charity.  It  was  the  last  will  and  testament  of  a 
father  to  his  widely-separated,  yet  ever-united  children: 

"  Being  uncertain  when  it  shall  please  God  to  call  me  to  Himself, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  being  certain  that  the  time  can  not  be  far 
off,  on  account  of  my  advanced  age,  the  number,  duration,  and 
greatness  of  my  sufferings,  far  beyond  my  strength,  I  am  thereby 
admonished  to  fulfil  duties  which  devolve  upon  me,  and  which 
the  nature  of  my  malady  may  prevent  me  from  accomplishing  at 
the  hour  of  my  death.  Considering  myself,  then,  on  the  point  of 
appearing  before  the  tribunal  of  God,  the  infallible  tribunal  of  all 
truth  and  justice,  after  long  and  mature  deliberation,  after  having 
humbly  implored  my  most  merciful  Redeemer  and  awful  Judge, 
that  in  this,  one  of  the  last  actions  of  my  life,  I  miglit  not  be 
swayed  by  passion,  nor  by  any  resentment  of  feeling,  nor  by  any 
other  imperfect  motive  or  purpose  whatsoever,  but  only  because  I 
judge  it  my  duty  to  render  this  testimony  in  behalf  of  truth  and 
innocence,  I  make  the  two  following  declarations  and  protestations: 

"First,  I  declare  and  protest  that  the  Society  of  Jesus,  now 
suppressed,  has  given  no  cause  for  such  suppression.  This  I  de- 
clare and  protest  with  all  the  moral  certainty  which  a  Superior 
can  have  who  is  fully  informed  of  what  passes  in  his  Order. 

•••A  similar  instance  of  intense  affection  occurred  at  the  dispersion 
of  the  Order,  at  Rome,  in  1848,  in  the  case  of  Father  Buonvicini,  a 
man  of  great  literary  attainments  and  exalted  sanctity. — Tr. 
53* 


190  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"  Second,  I  declare  and  protest  that  I  have  given  none,  not  even 
the  slightest  cause  for  my  own  imprisonment.  This  I  declare  and 
protest  with  that  full  and  complete  certainty  and  evidence  which 
each  one  has  of  his  own  actions.  This  second  declaration  I  make 
only  because  it  is  due  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  now  suppressed,  of 
which  I  was  Superior-General. 

"On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  pretend  that,  on  account  of  these, 
my  declarations  and  protestations,  any  guilt  should  attach  before 
God  to  those  who  have  injured  the  society  and  myself,  as  I,  on  my 
own  part,  abstain  from  such  judgment.  The  thoughts  of  men  are 
known  to  God  alone.  He  alone  can  discern  the  errors  of  the  human 
mind,  and  determine  whether  they  are  such  as  excuse  from  sin;  He 
alone  can  penetrate  to  the  motives  of  an  action,  the  spirit  which  in- 
spires it,  the  feelings  and  sentiments  which  accompany  it;  and,  since 
on  these  things  depends  the  innocence  or  malice  of  the  act,  I  leave 
judgment  to  Him  who  searches 'the  works  and  sounds  the  thoughts 
of  men. 

"And  to  fulfil  my  duty  as  a  Christian,  I  protest  that,  with  the  help 
of  God,  I  have  always  forgiven,  and  do  now  sincerely  forgive,  those 
who  have  troubled  and  injured  me — first,  in  all  the  evils  which 
they  have  accumulated  on  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  the  severity 
with  which  they  have  treated  the  religious  who  composed  it; 
secondly,  in  the  suppression  of  the  said  society,  and  in  the  cir- 
cumstances which  accompanied  that  suppression  ;  and,  finally,  in 
my  imprisonment,  as  well  on  account  of  its  severity,  as  for  the  in- 
jury which  it  has  borne  to  my  reputation — facts  which  are  all 
public  and  notorious  to  the  whole  world,  I  implore  pardon  of  God, 
through  His  mercy  and  goodness,  and  through  the  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ,  for  my  many  sins,  and  for  all  the  authors  and  coJperators 
in  the  above-mentioned  evils  and  wrongs;  and  I  desire  to  die  with 
this  sentiment  and  prayer  in  my  heart. 

"Finally,  I  beg  and  conjure  all  those  who  may  see  these,  my 
declarations  and  protestations,  to  publish  them  to  the  world  as 
much  as  they  can.  I  beg  and  conjure  them,  by  all  the  motives  of 
humanity,  of  justice,  of  Christian  charity,  that  are  capable  of  in- 
ducing them  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  my  will  and  desire. 
[Signed,]  "  Lorenzo  Ricci,"* 

*  From  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  by  M,  Cretineau  Joly,  It 
i3  through  motives  of  that  humanity,  justice,  and  Christian  charity, 
to  which  Father  Ricci  so  touehingly  appeals,  that  we  have  ventured 
to  insert  this  afi'ecting  protestation. — Tr. 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER    LORENZO   RICCI.  191 

After  having  read  the  paper  which  contiiincd  these  sen- 
tinieuts,  the  venerable  religious  received  the  holy  viaticum. 
Five  days  later,  on  the  21:th,  he  calmly  fell  asleep  in  the 
Lord. 

By  express  command  of  Pius  VI,  his  funeral  was  cele- 
brated with  great  pomp  in  the  church  of  the  Gesu,  and 
the  body  was  deposited  by  the  side  of  the  Generals  of 
the  Order  who  had  preceded  him.  In  the  opinion  of 
Pius  VI,  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  disbanded  only  for  a 
time ;  it  was  not  abolished. 

In  the  same  year,  1775,  during  the  Jubilee,  which  was 
being  celebrated  by  several  Jesuit  preachers  in  France, 
and  even  in  Paris,  notwithstanding  the  decree  of  banish- 
ment, one  of  them,  the  celebrated  Father  Beauregard, 
whose  great  eloquence  attracted  the  admiration  of  vast 
numbers,  preached  at  Notre  Dame  with  marked  success. 
On  one  occasion,  suddenly  inspired,  and  turning  toward 
the  altar,  he  exclaimed : 

"  Yes  !  it  is  against  the  King  and  religion  that  modern  philoso- 
phers wage  war.  The  axe  and  the  hammer  are  already  raised  in 
their  hands.  They  await  but  a  favorable  moment  to  subvert  the 
altar  and  the  throne.  Yes,  0  Lord,  thy  temples  will  be  plundered 
and  desecrated ;  thy  feasts  abolished ;  thy  very  name  blas- 
phemed ;  thy  religion  prohibited.  But  what  do  I  hear  ?  Great 
God!  what  do  I  behold?  Those  sacred  chants  to  thy  honor,  which 
have  resounded  in  thy  holy  temples,  succeeded  by  the  chants  of 
profanity!  And  thou,  infamous  divinity  of  Paganism!  thou 
comest  her6  to  usurp,  in  thy  audacity,  the  place  of  the  living  God, 
and  to  take  thy  seat  upon  the  throne  of  the  Holy  of  Holies,  there 
to  receive  the  sacrilegious  incense  of  thy  worshippers!" 

The    effect   of    these    prophetic  words    was    immense.* 

*  In  1789,  the  same  orator  was  preaching  before  the  King,  at  Ver- 
sailles, when  he  suddenly  stopped.  An  expression  of  deep  sorrow 
was  observable  in  his  countenance.  For  a  few  moments,  be  was 
motionless  and  absorbed,  whon  he  suddenly  exclaimed,  in  a  firm 


192  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

We  are  assured,  by  La  Harpe,  that  one  of  the  philoso- 
phers, who  was  present,  exclaimed  :  "  This  postpones  the 
revolution  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  !  "  He  was  mis- 
taken ;  it  was  destined  to  break  out  sooner. 

voice,  which  resounded  like  a  clap  of  thunder,  "  France  !  France  ! 
France  !  thy  hour  is  at  hand  !  Thou  wilt  be  confounded  and  de- 
stroyed!" These  expressions,  having  no  connection  with  the  sub- 
ject of  the  discourse,  made  a  great  impression  upon  the  King  and 
the  entire  court. — Biographic  Notice  of  Father  Beauregard,  by  Rev, 
Father  Guidee. 


THE    SOCIETY   PROVIDENTIALLY    PRESERVED.         193 


®l)e  Smt\\}  of  Icsiis  |roljii)cntial.l!|  Ijrcserljci* 

ITTT)  —  180S. 
I. 

The  enemies  of  the  Church  were  satisfied.  The  So- 
ciety of  Jesus  no  longer  existed  for  its  defense,  and,  un- 
mindful of  the  Divine  promise,  they  hoped  soon  to  destroy 
the  Church  itself.  They  relied  upon  the  youth  of  the 
times,  whom  they  endeavored  to  imbue  with  notions  of 
independence,  and  whose  passions  and  evil  inclinations 
they  encouraged. 

"This  event,"  (the  suppi-ession  of  the  Society  of  Jesus),  says 
Leopold  Ranke,  "  produced  the  strangest  effects  in  the  Catholic 
countries.  The  animosity  to  the  Jesuits,  and  their  overthrow, 
were  chiefly  attributable  to  their  defense  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
See  of  Rome,  in  the  most  rigoi-ous  acceptation  of  the  word;  but, 
as  Rome  herself  now  abandoned  this  pretension,  the  strict  idea 
of  supremacy  and  its  consequences  fell  together.  The  efforts  of 
the  opposition  were  crowned  with  complete  and  incontestable  vic- 
tory. The  fact  that  the  society,  which  had  made  the  instruction 
of  youth  its  especial  business,  and  which  still  had  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  it  in  its  hands,  should  be  annihilated  at  one  blow,  without 
any  preparation,  must  needs  occasion  a  convulsion  of  the  Catholic 
world  to  its  very  centre — to  that  core  of  society  wherein  new  gen- 
erations of  men  are  formed.  The  outworks  being  taken,  the  vic- 
torious party  proceeded,  with  greater  ardor,  to  the  attack  of  the 
fortress.  The  agitation  increased  from  day  to  day,  and  desertion 
and  apostasy  thinned  the  ranks  of  the  Church;  and  what  hope 
remained  ?  '  * 

*-  History  of  the  Papacy,  (Austin's  Translation),  Book  VIII,  g  IS, 
p.  240. 


194  HISTORY   OF    THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

Such,  according  to  the  admission  of  the  Protestant 
doctor,  was  the  deplorable  result  of  the  suppression  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus — of  that  Order  as  renowned  for  the 
number  of  learned  men  it  had  given  to  the  world,  as  for 
that  of  the  martyrs  and  saints  it  had  prepared  for  heaven. 
But  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  not  destroyed  ;  it  was  only 
temporarily  disbanded ;  and  Providence,  while  sending 
back  to  the  bosom  of  their  families  the  majority  of  these 
valiant  soldiers,  assigned  to  the  rest  the  states  of  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  those  of  the  Empress  of  Russia. 
The  trial  of  the  Jesuits  was  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
efforts  of  Pius  VI.  .The  commission  charged  with  this 
duty  could  not  find  the  slightest  ground  of  accusation 
against  them,  and,  therefore,  all  the  prisoners  had  been 
set  free.  What  a  triumph  for  the  Jansenists  and  philos- 
ophers, to  have  caused  the  condemnation  of  guiltless  per- 
sons, and  the  suppression  of  an  order,  whose  abolition 
left  the  care  of  youth  to  their  perfidious  teaching,  im- 
peded the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  foreign  countries,  and 
caused  consternation  and  grief  in  all  the  colonies  founded 
by  the  Jesuits  !  A  member  of  the  Society  of  Foreign 
Missions,  Abbe  Perrin,  arrived  in  Hindostan  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1773,  being  full  of  the  prejudices  of  the  times 
against  the  Jesuits.  But  when  once  he  became  acquainted 
with  these  holy  religious,  he  saw  only  their  eminent  vir- 
tues, and,  in  his  Voyage  dans  V Indostan^  he  expresses  his 
great  admiration  of  them  : 

"I  have  looked  upon  the  Jesuits  "with  the  eye  of  a  critic,  and, 
perhaps,  with  malignity.  Until  I  knew  them,  I  mistrusted  them  ; 
but  their  virtue  has  vanquished  and  removed  my  prejudices.  The 
veil  of  error  has  fallen  from  my  eyes.  I  have  found  in  them  men 
who  knew  how  to  combine  the  most  sublime  contemplation  and 
prayer  with  the  most  active  pursuits  of  life — men  entirely  de- 
tached from  worldly  matters,  and  whose  mortification  might  dis- 
may the  most  fervent  anchorite." 


THE    SOCIETY    PROVIDENTIALLY    PRESERVED.  195 

Such  men  have  always  had,  and  ever  will  have,  opposed  to 
them  the  enemies  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  his  Church.  They 
always  have  been,  and  ever  will  be,  honored  by  their  hatred 
and  persecution.  Voltaire  complained  to  Frederick  II 
that  the  Jesuits,  who  had  been  proscribed  by  the  Catholic 
princes,  were  retained  and  protected  by  him,  an  heretical 
prince  and  a  philosopher.  To  this  the  monarch  replied^ 
"  There  i^  not  in  our  country  a  single  learned  Catholic  ex- 
cept among  the  Jesuits.  We  had  no  one  capable  of  con- 
ducting the  schools.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary  either  to 
retain  the  Jesuits  or  to  allow  education  to  fall  into  decay." 
From  the  same  motives,  Catharine  of  Russia  determined  to 
prohibit  the  publication  of  the  brief  of  Clement  XIV. 
The  position  of  the  Jesuits  in  White  Russia  was  an 
anomaly.  Clement  XIV  had  authorized  them  to  remain 
in  statu  quo,  but  a  new  Pope  had  taken  his  place.  The 
Jesuits  were  desirous  of  sending  in  their  submission  to 
him,  and  of  conserving  their  religious  existence  only  so 
far  as  he  might  see  fit  to  sanction.  On  the  13th  of 
January,  1776,  Pius  VI  approved  and  encouraged  them, 
through  the  medium  of  Cardinal  Rezzonico,  and  they  im- 
mediately received  all  those  members  of  the  society  who 
were  dispersed  throughout  Poland,  and  were  living  as 
secular  priests. 

On  the  9th  of  August,  the  Pope  issued  a  decree  fully 
empowering  the  Bishop  of  Mohilow  to  exercise  jurisdic- 
tion over  all  the  religious  orders  of  his  diocese,  in  ac- 
cordance  with  the  expressed  desire  of  the  Empress 
Catharine.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff,  in  order  to  avoid  irri- 
tating the  royal  powers  which  had  extorted  the  Brief  of 
Suppression,  took  this  means  to  empower  the  Jesuits  of 
Russia  to  establish  a  novitiate,  which  Catharine  much  de- 
sired, and  the  cost  of  which  she  was  willing  to  bear. 
Spain  was  loud  in  her  protestations.  She  charged  the 
Pope  with  entering  into  a  compact  with  Catharine    and 


196  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  Bishop  of  Mohilow,  which  was  not  desired.  Catharine 
wrote  to  Charles  III  that  she  was  resolved  to  retain  the 
Jesuits  for  the  education  of  the  young,  and  the  advance- 
ment of  science,  and  that  she  could  not  insure  their  con- 
servation except  by  establishing  a  novitiate ;  that  she 
had  forced  the  Bishop  of  Mohilow  to  use  to  that  effect 
the  authority  which  had  been  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
Pope  at  her  solicitation.  The  King  of  Spain  had  to  be 
satisfied  with  this  explanation,  although  it  entirely  frus- 
trated all  his  designs. 

On  the  2d  of  February,  1780,  the  habit  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  was  conferred  upon  several  novices,  and  in  the 
month  of  May,  the  Empress,  being  on  a  visit  to  the  Fa- 
thers of  Polotsk,  requested  to  see  the  novices,  for  whom, 
as  well  as  for  the  college,  she  expressed  the  most  lively 
interest.  The  Bishop  of  31ohilow,  Stanislaus  Siestrzence- 
wicz,  had  materially  aided  Catharine  in  bringing  about  this 
resuscitation  of  the  Order  of  St.  Ignatius.  She  was  grate- 
ful for  it,  and  so  proved  by  elevating  him  to  the  dignity 
of  Archbishop  ;  and  his  diocese  being  considerably  ex- 
tended, she  appointed  Father  Benislawski,  a  Jesuit,  as  his 
coadjutor. 

The  Prime  Minister,  Potemkin,who  entertained  the  same 
views  as  the  Empress,  expressed  to  the  Fathers  his  desire 
to  witness  the  propagation  and  extension  of  their  useful 
and  learned  Institute,  when  one  of  the  Fathers  replied 
that,  being  without  a  Superior-General,  their  action  must, 
of  necessity,  be  limited.  The  Minister  persuaded  them  to 
solicit  from  Catharine  permission  to  elect  a  Superior,  and, 
on  the  25th  of  June,  1782,  a  decree,  issued  by  the  Empress, 
empowered  them  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  chief,  who 
should  have  full  authority  over  all  the  Superiors  of  the 
houses  and  colleges  in  the  empire.  The  assembled  con- 
gregation comprised  thirty  professed  members,  and  named 
Father  Czerniewicz  Vicar-General,  with  full  authority  and 


THE    SOCIETT    PROVIDExNTlALLY    PRESERVED.         197 

power  of  General.  Father  Benislawski  then  proceeded  to 
Rome,  where  he  arrived  id  t'he  month  of  xMarch,  1783,  and 
phiced  before  the  Pope,  for  his  consideration,  all  that  had 
been  done.  Pius  VI  fully  approved  it,  constituted  the 
See  of  Mohilow  an  Archbishopric,  and  confirmed  the 
choice  made  by  Catharine  for  the  coadjutorship  in  favor 
of  Father  Benislawski. 

On  the  18th  of  July,  1785,  Father  Czerniewicz  died,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-six,  and,  on  the  27th  of  September,  Father 
Lenkiewicz,  whom  he  had  appointed  Vicar,  was  called  to 
succeed  him.  The  young  society  developed  itself  by  the 
accession  of  foreign  members,  who  came  to  join  their 
brethren  of  Russia,  as  well  as  by  the  novices,  whose  num- 
bers were  increasing.  They  were,  therefore,  in  a  position 
to  increase  the  number  of  houses  and  colleges,  and  to  hope 
for  a  complete  reinstatement  of  the  Institute.  Other  Jes- 
uits had  joined  those  of  Prussia,  but  the  latter,  having  no 
novitiate,  could  not  recruit  new  members  ;  they  could  only 
receive  veterans. 

While  this  marvellous  preservation  was  witnessed  in 
White  Russia,  the  Jesuits,  who  were  disseminated  and 
secularized  in  those  Catholic  countries,  whence  they  had 
been  driven,  did  not  remain  idle.  Faithful  to  the  motto 
of  their  holy  Institute,  they  labored  zealously  for  the 
greater  glory  of  God.  Of  twenty  preachers  who  occu- 
pied the  pulpits  of  Paris  during  the  Jubilee,  sixteen  were 
Jesuits.  The  Parliament  was  aware  of  the  fact,  but 
Choiseul  was  no  longer  there.  Louis  XVI  had  succeeded 
ais  grandfather,  and  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  suppressed; 
the  Jesuits  had  nothing  more  to  fear.  The  time  had  not 
yet  arrived  when  every  edifying  priest  would  be  pro- 
claimed a  Jesuit^  or  when  every  layman,  who  dared  to  be 
a  Christian,  would  be  called  a  Sodalist.  Personally,  the 
secularized  Jesuits  possessed  the  respect  and  even  the 
confidence  of  the  adversaries  of  the  society.  Several  mem- 
54 


198  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

bers  were  proposed  for  the  episcopacy,  but  nearly  all 
declined,  in  the  hope  of  one  day  seeing  their  Institute 
reestablished.  Some  were  forced  to  accept  the  dignity 
tendered  them.  Thus,  the  Sees  of  Carpi,  Macerata,  Fa- 
euza,  Pignerol,  Sienna,  Verona,  Cortona,  Albenga,  Forli, 
Sareza,  and  Ponteremo  were  filled  by  Jesuits,  in  that  Italy 
where  the  blow  had  been  struck  which  had  crushed  them 
simultaneously  all  over  the  world.  Germany,  Austria, 
Hungary,  France,  and  even  America,  asked  for  and  ob- 
tained bishops  from  among  the  former  members  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 

While  devoting  themselves,  with  indefatigable  zeal,  to 
the  salvation  of  souls,  the  Jesuits  were  not  unmindful  of 
the  arts  and  sciences,  which  had  been  cultivated  in  the 
society.  Father  Walcher,  by  command  of  the  Empress 
Marie  Ther^se,  planned  the  dikes  of  Lake  Rofner-lise,  to 
preserve  the  surrounding  country  from  its  frequent  over- 
flow, and  was  nominated  Chief  of  Navigation  and  Math- 
ematical Sciences.  Father  Cabral  preserved  the  city  of 
Terni  from  the  disasters  to  which  it  was  so  frequently 
subject  from  the  fall  of  the  Velino,  and  subsequently, 
when  allowed  once  more  to  return  to  his  native  country, 
constructed  dikes  on  the  banks  of  the  Tagus,  and  thus 
preserved  the  surrounding  country  from  disastrous  inun- 
dations. Father  Lecci  had  the  military  road  of  Man- 
tua put  in  repair.  Father  Riccati  regulated  the  course 
of  the  rivers  Po,  Adige,  and  Brenta.  Father  Ximenes 
invented  a  new  system  of  bridges,  which  was  adopted  in 
Tuscany  and  Rome.  Father  Zeplichal,  a  learned  min- 
eralogist, by  order  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  superintended 
and  directed  the  mining  operations  in  the  county  of 
Glatz. 

The  bishops  of  Italy  confided  many  of  the  seminaries 
tp  the  learning,  piety,  and  experience  of  the  Jesuits.  The 
Sovereign  Poiititf  himself  placed  that  of  Subiaco,  which 


THE    SOCIETY    PROVIDKNTIALLY    PRESERVED.  109 

lie  had  founded,  under  the  direction  of  Father  Alexander 
Cerasohi,  while  he  c-onfidecl  the  Ecclesiastical  Acadeni^^to 
Father  Zaceharia.  Pius  VI  so  highly  esteemed  this  Fa- 
ther, that,  when  about  to  intrust  an  important  mission  to 
Cardinal  Pacca,  he  said  to  him,  and  it  is  the  Cardinal 
who  relates  it,  in  his  Memoires  Historiqucs: 

"From  this  moment  you  must  direct  your  eutire  attention  to  the 
sacred  sciences,  and  seek  instruction  from  the  Abbj  Zaceharia, 
who  is  an  inexhaustible  source  of  erudition,  and  who  will  impart 
to  you  that  knowledge  which  is  so  necessary  to  enable  you  to  ac- 
quit yourself  with  honor  in  the  position  of  Nuncio." 

As  secular  priests,  the  Jesuits  still  retained  the  direc- 
tion of  several  colleges,  which  the  bishops  or  princes 
forbade  them  to  leave.  There  were  forty  Jesuits  in  the 
College  of  Augsburg.  The  Elector  of  Cologne  appointed 
a  Jesuit,  Kector  of  the  University,  and  Superior  of  the 
College  des  Trois  Couronnes.  In  Tuscany,  the  chief  chairs 
were  filled  by  Jesuits.  They  were  sought  for  every-where, 
and  every-where  their  absence  was  mourned.  Louis  XVI 
wrote,  under  his  own  hand,  to  the  celebrated  Father  Bos- 
covich,  urging  him  to  come  to  France.  All  the  acade- 
mies of  Europe  were  anxious  to  possess  him.  He  gave 
the  preference  to  Louis  XVI,  who  appointed  him  Optical 
Director  for  the  navy,  with  an  annual  salary  of  eight 
thousand  livres.  But  the  jealous  hatred  of  d'Alambert 
and 'his  clique  compelled  the  learned  religious  to  retire  to 
Milan,  where  he  was  enabled  to  prosecute  his  scientific 
researches  in  peace.  We  can  not  pursue  this  topic  fur- 
ther. Our  space  is  too  limited  to  enumerate  all  the  tri- 
umphs which  the  members  of  this  suppressed  Order 
achieved. 

II. 

The  Duke  of  Alba,  that  friend  of  Pombal  and  of  the 
Marquis  d'Aranda,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  joined  them  in 


200  HISTORY    OF   THE    SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

persecuting  the  Society  of  Jesus,  was  to  appear  before 
the  tribunal  of  the  Supreme  Judge,  and  he  trembled  with 
fear  at  the  thought  of  the  terrible  account  he  would  have 
to  render.  It  was  in  1776.  One  day,  Philip  Bertram, 
Bishop  of  Salamanca,  and  Grand  Inquisitor,  approached 
the  bedside  of  the  dying  man,  who  had  begged  that  he 
might  be  sent  fur,  as  he  wished  to  confide  to  him  an  im- 
portant secret  before  he  expired.  The  Bishop  remained 
alone  with  him  a  few  minutes,  and  then  gave  place  to  the 
King,  who,  in  like  manner,  had  come  at  the  request  of 
him  who  felt  the  justice  of  God  weighing  heavily  upon 
his  soul. 

The  King's  visit  terminated,  the  Duke  of  Alba,  as 
though  he  had  completed  his  business  here  below,  was 
ushered  into  eternity. 

What  had  passed  at  these  two  visits  of  the  Grand  In- 
quisitor and  the  King,  in  those  last  and  solemn  moments, 
no  one  knows  ;  but  what  we  do  know,  as  the  Protestant 
Christopher  de  Mur  admits  in  his  journal,  is,  that  the 
Duke  of  Alba  handed  to  the  Bishop  of  Salamanca  a  docu- 
ment, in  which  he  acknowledged  himself  the  author  of  the 
fable  of  Nicholas  I,  Emperor  of  Paraguay,  of  the  insur- 
rection "  o/  the  hats,''  which  had  been  attributed  to  the 
Jesuits  ;  in  fine,  of  the  supposed  letter  of  the  General  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus — a  letter  the  fatal  consequences  of 
which  we  have  seen.  The  dying  Duke  gave  a  similar 
declaration  to  Charles  III,  who  kept  it  huried  in  his 
royal  heart;  but,  after  his  death,  the  Grand  Inquisitor, 
who  had  a  duplicate  of  the  document,  and  who,  probably, 
had  promised  the  Duke  to  make  it  known,  gave  the  secret 
to  the  world.  This  was,  no  doubt,  the  reason  why  Charles 
IV,  some  few  years  later,  permitted  the  Jesuits  to  return 
to  his  states. 

Joseph  I,  King  of  Portugal,  died  in  1777,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Donna  Maria,  his  daughter.     The  old  Minister, 


THE    SOCIETY    PROVIDENTIALLY    PRESERVED.        201 

Pombal,  had  now  to  give  an  account  of  that  power  which, 
unfortunately  for  the  Portuguese,  he  had  so  long  abused. 
Charged  with  the  greatest  iniquities,  already  too  clearly 
proved,  it  was  not  difficult  to  judge  his  case.     Neverthe- 
less, the  trial  was  of  long  duration.     Finally,  he  was  con- 
demned to  death ;  but  the  great  criminal  being  eighty-five 
years   of  age,  the  Queen,  Donna  Maria  I,  commuted  the 
sentence  to  banishment  for    life   in    the   city  of  Pombal, 
which    had  been  granted    him  by   the   liberality   of  King 
Joseph.     He   took  refuge  there  in  1781,  hated  and  exe- 
crated by   all,  after  having   restored  to    his  victims  their 
confiscated    property.     According  to  his  own    admission, 
he  had  expended  eight  hundred  thousand  ducats  in  effect- 
ing; the  ruin  of  the  Jesuits!     On  the  accession  of  Donna 
Maria  to  the  throne,  more  than  six  hundred  of  the  Fa- 
thers of  the  society  still    Linguished  in   their  dungeons. 
She  gave    them    their   liberty ;    but   this   did   not   suffice. 
They  desired  to  be  tried.     Father  Juan  de  Guzman  de- 
manded this  act  of  justice  at  the  hands  of  Donna  Maria, 
in  a  petition  which  history  has  preserved,  and  which  can 
not  be  perused  without  emotion.^ 

The  venerable  martyrs  were  fully  justified  in  their  de- 
mand for  a  trial ;  it  might  prove  of  benefit  to  posterity. 
As  for  the  time  being,  it  mattered  little,  for  the  happiness 
which  the  Portuguese  had  enjoyed  under  the  direction  of 
the  good  Fathers,  contrasted  with  their  misfortunes  under 
the  rule  of  Pombal,  were  more  than  sufficient  to  exonerate 
the  Jesuits.  The  innocent  prisoners  found  as  many  de- 
voted friends  as  there  were  Christian  hearts.  They  were 
greeted  with  tears  of  sympathy  and  consolation,  and  the 
Queen  was  blessed  by  all  her  subjects. 

Thus  it   was   that   the   Jesuits   caused    themselves   to  he 
every-wherc  expelled.     Facts  gave  a  continual  contradiction 

*  S«.e  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  by  M.  Cretineau  Joly. 
54* 


202  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

to  this  assertion  of  the  coalition ;  but  they  have  not  pre- 
vented the  falsehood  becoming  current  in  the  world,  at  the 
expense  of  truth.  Such  is  the  constitution  of  the  human 
heart,  that  malicious  falsehood  is  blindly  believed,  while 
truth  alone  is  challenged  for  her  proofs.  Truth  seems  of 
so  little  importance,  that,  when  calumny  has  once  been  re- 
ceived, we  begrudge  the  time  necessary  to  investigate  the 
claims  of  the  former!  Such  is  the  want  of  reflection  in 
the  human  mind,  even  among  the  professedly  pious. 

Louis  XVI  had  made  application  to  Pope  Pius  VI  for 
missionaries  to  proceed  to  Cayenne.  It  was  important 
that  they  should  be  familiar  with  the  language  of  the 
natives.  The  College  of  the  Propaganda  was  not  in  a  po- 
sition to  comply  with  this  stipulation.  The  Society  of 
Jesus  was  suppressed;  but  there  still  existed  Jesuits,  who 
were  ever  ready  to  answer  to  the  call  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff.  Pius  VI  sent  four  Portuguese  Fathers.  They 
landed  at  Cayenne  in  the  month  of  November,  1777,  clad 
in  the  habit  of  their  Order.  They  were  received  with 
open  arms  by  the  natives.  They  had  been  told  that  there 
were  no  longer  any  Jesuits,  and  yet  they  once  more  be- 
held those  good  Fathers  whom  they  had  so  much  loved! 
They  prostrated  themselves  at  their  feet,  embraced  their 
habit,  and,  with  tears  of  joy,  begged  their  blessing,  de- 
claring that  henceforth  they  would  lead  a  life  becoming 
good  Christians. 

In  the  year  1784,  Father  John  Serane,  who,  in  Langue- 
doc,  had  earned  for  himself  the  title  of  Father  of  the  poor, 
died  at  Toulouse,  exhausted  by  the  labors  of  his  ministry. 
By  order  of  the  Parliament,  he  was  solemnly  interred  in 
the  Church  of  Our  Lady  of  Nazareth.  On  the  very  day 
of  the  funeral,  in  the  same  little  church,  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  venerated  remains  of  the  holy  religious,  steps 
were  taken  by  the  diocesan  for  the  beatification  of  the 
deceased  saint. 


THE    SOCIETY    PROVIDENTIALLY    PRESERVED.        203 

In  1788,  Father  lleyre  was  the  Lenten  preacher  at  the 
court  of  Louis  XVI.  Tlie  year  followinij:,  Father  Beaure- 
gard occupied  the  same  position.  In  1791,  Father  Lan- 
fant  had  opened  the  Lenten  sermons  at  the  court,  when  he 
was  called  upon  to  subscribe  to  the  oath  which  was  then 
enforced  on  the  clergy;  he  refused,  and  was  prohibited 
from  preaching.  On  the  2d  of  September,  1792,  he  once 
more  appeared  in  the  pulpit.  The  revolutionary  party 
again  demanded  from  him  the  oath,  and  again  he  refused, 
this  time  with  the  sacrifice  of  his  life.  During  the  fatal 
days  of  the  2d  and  3d  of  September,  nineteen  Jesuits 
were  put  to  death,  with  numerous  others  of  the  priest- 
hood. In  the  provinces  they  sufifered  in  like  manner,  in 
common  with  the  other  clergy.  It  was  not  the  Jesuits 
alone,  but  religion  itself  that  was  assailed. 

In  1792,  Ferdinand,  Duke  of  Parma,  freed  from  the  con- 
trol of  the  Marquis  de  Felina,  recalled  the  Jesuits,  restored 
to  them  their  colleges,  and  confided  to  them, the  direction 
of  the  University. 

Pius  VI  impressed  upon  the  Duke  of  Parma  and  the 
Jesuits  the  necessity  of  prudence,  and,  without  openly  ap- 
proving, allowed  them  to  proceed  ;  for  Italy  was  threatened 
by  the  revolutionary  party,  and  there  was  every  thing  to 
fear. 

On  the  5th  of  November,  1796,  the  Jesuits  of  Kussia 
lost  their  most  powerful  supporter  in  the  death  of  the  Em- 
press, Catharine  II;  but  the  day  had  not  yet  arrived  for 
the  reestablishment  of  the  society  in  the  Catholic  states. 
It  pleased  Almighty  God  to  excite  in  the  heart  of  Paul  I 
the  most  lively  interest  for  this  holy  Institute.  After  his 
coronation,  the  new  Emperor,  on  his  journey  from  Mos- 
cow to  St.  Petersburg,  visited  the  College  of  Orcha.  He 
was  charmed  with  what  he  there  saw,  and  passed  the 
highest  encomiums  upon  both  professors  and  pupils,  giv- 
ing them  the  assurance  that,  during  his  reign,  no  change 


204  HISTORY   OP   THE   SOCIETY   OP   JESUS. 

should  be  made  detrimental  to  the  society,  and  promised 
that  he  would  evince  the  same  interest  in  its  prosperity 
that  Catharine  II  had  done. 

Father  Lenkiewicz,  exhausted  by  the  incessant  labors  of 
his  ministry,  expired  on  the  10th  of  September,  1798,  and, 
on  the  1st  of  February,  1799,  the  Congregation  nominated, 
as  his  successor,  Father  Xavier  Kareu,  who  was  appointed 
Perpetual  Vicar-General. 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff,  whom  the  revolution  had  banished 
from  Rome,  was  a  captive  at  Valence.  On  quitting  the 
Eternal  City,  he  called  for  a  Jesuit  to  whom  he  was  much 
attached,  Father  Marotti. 

"Tell  me  franlvly,"  said  he,  "do  you  feel  that  you  have 
strength  enough  to  ascend  even  unto  Calvary  with  me?  " 

"I  am  ready,"  replied  the  Father,  "to  follow  the  steps 
and  share  the  fate  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ  and  of  my  sov- 
ereisrn." 

And  he  remained  with  him,  affording  him  hope  and  con- 
solation in  all  his  afflictions,  until,  finally,  he  received  his  last 
sigh,  at  Valence,  on  the  29th  of  August,  1799,  The  con- 
clave assembled  at  Venice,  and  on  the  14th  of  March, 
1800,  Cardinal  Barnabo  Chiaramonti,  who  took  the  title 
of  Pius  VII,  was  duly  elected  Pope.  On  the  11th  of 
August,  in  the  same  year,  Paul  I  thus  wrote  to  the  new 
Pope: 

"Most  Holt  Father:  The  Reverend  Gabriel  Gruber  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus,  having  informed  me  that  the  members  of  the  society 
desire  to  be  sanctioned  by  your  Holiness,  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to 
solicit  a  formal  approbation  of  their  Institute,  for  which  I  enter- 
tain a  great  respect;  and  I  hope  that  my  recommendation  may 
prove  useful  to  them." 

Paul  I  was  warmly  attached  to  Father  Gruber,  whose 
merits  and  erudition  were  to  him  peculiarly  attractive.  He 
had  learned  to  love  him  from  his  very  first  acquaintance 


THE    SOCIETY    PROVIDENTIALLY    PRESERVED.        205 

with  him,  during  the  liretimc  of  Catharine,  and  after  he 
assumed  the  reigns  of  government,  he  found  him  more 
necessary  than  ever.  He  had  him  constantly  in  his  com- 
pany, and  made  a  point  of  introducing  him  to  the  foreign 
princes  who  visited  his  court,  and  these,  being  ambitious 
of  pleasing  the  sovereign,  visited  the  humble  religious 
with  the  same  respect  which  they  paid  to  persons  of  the 
highest  distinction  in  the  empire.  Father  Gruber  received 
these  honors,  from  which  he  had  no  means  of  escape,  but 
never  took  advantage  of  the  royal  favor  except  in  the  in- 
terests of  religion  or  of  charity. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  letter  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
Pius  VII  was  struck  with  the  interposition  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence in  behalf  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  There  existed, 
however,  so  many  blind  prejudices  against  that  Order, 
whose  salutary  influence  was  ever  feared,  that  the  Pontiff 
saw  fit  to  select  those  from  anions;  the  Cardinals  who  had 
been  most  hostile  to  the  Institute  of  St.  Ignatius,  consti- 
tuting them  a  commission,  to  which  he  referred  the  re- 
quest of  Paul  I,  authorizing  them  to  investigate  the  matter. 
Here,  again,  was  a  direct  manifestation  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence. The  four  Cardinals  decided  that  the  request  of  the 
Emperor  should  be  complied  with,  and  that  it  would  be 
well  for  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  approve  of  the  Institute 
for  Russia  only. 

On  the  7th  of  March,  1801,  Pius  VII,  by  the  Bull 
CathoUcoe  fidei^  reestablished  the  society,  which  twenty 
years  before  had  been  suppressed.  During  the  night  of 
the  23d  of  the  same  month,  Paul  I  was  assassinated. 

The  King  of  Spain,  Charles  IV,  authorized  the  return 
of  the  Jesuits  to  his  dominions,  and  they  were  welcomed 
with  enthusiastic  joy.  Although  secularized,  they  were 
still  Jesuits  whom  the  Spaniards  again  saw;  they  were 
their  good  Fathers  whom  they  once  more  had  the  happiness 
to  welcome,  after  an  absence  as  long  as  it  had  been  painful. 


206  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  April,  1800,  that  the  Jesuits  re- 
turned to  the  Spanish  soil,  where  they  had  ever  been  so 
much  beloved,  and  no  sooner  had  they  arrived,  than  they 
learned  that  the  plague  was  raging  in  Andalusia.  Thither 
they  immediately  hastened,  to  render  assistance  to  the  suf- 
ferers from  the  fearful  visitation,  whom  they  attended,  with- 
out intermission,  both  day  and  night.  Twenty-seven  of 
the  Fathers  fell  victims  to  their  indefatigable  zeal.  Some 
time  afterward,  Charles  IV  was  made  acquainted  with  the 
reestablishment  of  the  Order  by  a  brief  of  the  Pope. 
This  he  considered  an  insult  to  the  memory  of  his  father, 
and  those  apostles  who  had  devoted  themselves,  even  unto 
death,  in  the  late  dreadful  visitation,  were  again  proscribed. 
The  citizens  of  Cadiz  implored  the  sovereign  to  permit 
them  the  honor  of  receivins;  the  Fathers  and  retainins: 
them  in  their  city.  Their  entreaties  were  in  vain  ;  the 
royal  order  had  to  be  carried  out,  the  Jesuits  had  again  to 
tread  the  road  to  exile. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  was  not  less  favorable  to  Fa- 
ther Gruber  than  Paul  I  had  been.  On  the  7th  of  June, 
1802,  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  College  of  Polotsk,  where  he 
found  Father  Kareu  upon  the  point  of  death,  to  whom 
he  expressed  the  deep  interest  he  took  in  the  society.  Fa- 
ther Gruber,  availing  himself  of  this  circumstance,  urged 
the  reception  of  the  brief  restoring  the  society.  Alexan- 
der acceded,  and  published  a  ukase  to  that  eifect,  and 
henceforth  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  legally  and  openly 
constituted.  On  the  30th  of  July,  the  eve  of  the  Feast 
of  St.  Ignatius,  Father  Kareu  went  to  rejoice  in  heaven 
over  the  triumph  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  upon  earth. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  GABRIEL  GRUBER.    207 


(gcucralsMg  of  pWm  (Saliricl  6ni!)cr, 

NINETEENTH    GENERAL. 
ISOQ  — 18  05. 

I. 

The  General  Confrresration  assembled  at  Polotsk,  on  the 
4tli  of  October,  1802,  and  named  Father  Gruber,  General 
of  the  society.  He  was  in  his  sixty-second  year.  The 
appointment  having  been  ratified  by  the  Emperor,  Father 
Gruber  proceeded  to  St.  Petersburg,  where  he  founded  a 
college  for  young  nobles.  He  there  formed  a  close  inti- 
macy with  Count  Joseph  de  Maistre,  then  Minister  from 
Sardinia  to  the  court  of  Russia. 

The  Jesuits  of  Great  Britain,  established  by  Thomas 
Weld,  in  his  estate  of  Stonyhurst,  Lancashire,  which  he 
made  over  to  them,  had  been,  from  the  year  1800,  urging 
the  Superior-General  to  incorporate  them  in  the  society 
which  had  been  sanctioned  in  Kussia.  But  the  brief  not 
permitting  this,  they  patiently  awaited  the  moment  decreed 
by  Providence,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  labored  with  un- 
tiring zeal  in  training  up  holy  priests  to  aid  them  in  the 
maintenance  and  propagation  of  the  faith.  When  they 
heard  that  their  brethren  of  Russia  had  been  permitted  to 
elect  a  General,  they  at  once  renewed  their  solicitations, 
and  Father  Gruber,  bavins;  addressed  His  Holiness  on  the 
subject,  received  the  requisite  authorization.  On  the  22d 
of  May,  1803,  Father  Marmaduke  Stone,  Rector  of  the 
English   College,   was   appointed    Provincial  of  England. 


208  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

All  the  secularized  Jesuits,  who  had  been  dispersed 
throughout  Great  Britain  from  the  time  of  the  suppression, 
at  once  assembled  at  Stonyhurst.  Wearied  with  an  inde- 
pendence so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  their  Order,  they  as- 
sumed with  pious  joy  the  yoke  of  holy  obedience,  which, 
in  times  gone  by,  they  had  found  so  easy  to  bear.  A  no- 
vitiate was  founded,  and  a  great  many  fervent  youths  made 
application  for  admission.  Thus,  the  society  was  estab- 
lished in  England,  in  that  very  country  where  it  had  never 
been  able  to  exist  save  under  the  ban  of  proscription. 
But  the  changes  which  had  there  successively  taken  place 
had  tended  to  modify  public  opinion,  as  well  as  the  consti- 
tution, and  now  the  measure  of  liberty  accorded  to  the 
Catholics  gave  to  the  Jesuits  a  ground  of  hope  for  the 
future. 

In  the  month  of  June  of  the  same  year,  1803,  the  Rus- 
sian Ambassador  at  Rome  presented  himself  at  the  Vati- 
can, accompanied  by  a  Jesuit  wearing  the  habit  of  St. 
Ignatius.  Such  an  occurrence  was,  at  the  time,  considered 
quite  an  event;  for,  from  the  year  1773,  no  Jesuit,  wear- 
ing the  dress  of  his  Order,  had  been  seen  in  the  capital  of 
the  Christian  world.  This  Jesuit  was  Father  Cajetano  An- 
giolini.  He  came  as  the  representative  of  Father  Gruber, 
General  of  the  Institute,  to  lay  before  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff the  status  of  the  society,  and  what  it  had  accomplished 
up  to  that  time.  Pius  VII  fully  approved  all  that  had 
been  achieved,  and  was  moved  to  tears  on  callino;  to  mind 
the  persecutions  with  which  the  enemies  of  Almighty  God 
had  pursued  the  society,  in  order  to  be  able  the  more  easily 
to  attack  the  Church.  He  expressed  his  desire  of  seeing 
the  development  and  extension  of  an  order  which  had  ren- 
dered such  valuable  service  to  the  Church  and  to  the  Holy 
See.  Finally,  he  bestowed  his  apostolical  blessing  upon 
Father  Angiolini,  and,  in  him,  upon  the  whole  society. 

At  the  close  of  the  same  year,  Father  Gruber  expe- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  EATllEK   (JABRIEL  GKUliER.         209 

• 

rieuced  another  great  consolation.  Tlie  Jesuits  of  Mary- 
land were  in  full  anticipation  of  seeing  the  society  resus- 
citated. After  the  suppression  of  the  society  in  England, 
Father  John  Carroll,  accompanied  by  several  of  his  fel- 
low-missionaries, went  to  that  part  of  North  America  of 
which  he  was  a  native.  He  had  there  labored  most  suc- 
cessfully in  the  salvation  of  souls.  He  was  nominated 
first  Bishop  to  the  See  of  Baltimore  by  Pius  VII,  and  sub- 
sequently appointed  Metropolitan  and  Legate  Apostolic, 
with  Father  Leonard  Neale  as  coadjutor.  On  the  25th 
of  May,  1803,  they  addressed  Father  G ruber,  urging  him 
to  recognize  those  members  of  the  society  in  America  who 
so  earnestly  desired  that  happiness.  The  request  was 
complied  with  by  the  appointment  of  Father  Molineux  as 
Superior  of  the  mission. 

By  a  decree,  dated  August,  ISO-i,  Ferdinand  of  Naples 
reinstated  the  Society  of  Jesus  in 'his  states,  to  the  in- 
expressible joy  of  the  people.  On  learning  the  joyful 
tidings,  the  Fathers,  who  were  distributed  in  all  directions, 
hastened  to  reoccupy  their  colleges  and  houses,  from  which 
they  had  been  excluded  for  a  period  of  thirty-seven  years, 
The  event  was  marked  by  general  enthusiasm.  They 
numbered  only  one  hundred  and  seventy,  death  having  car- 
ried off  the  rest;  but  the  survivors  gladly  resumed  the 
yoke  of  obedience.  Several  of  them,  whom  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff  had  raised  to  the  episcopacy,  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  rejoin  their  brethren.  Pius  VII  refused,  except 
in  the  case  of  one — the  Bishop  of  Verona,  Andrew  Avo- 
gadro.  On  the  day  of  the  publication  of  the  brief  rein- 
stating the  Jesuits,  all  the  members  of  the  royal  family 
approached  the  holy  table.  In  solemn  thanksgiving  for 
the  same,  the  King  attended  the  opening  of  the  church 
of  the  Fathers,  observing  to  them  that  he  had  never  had 
the  courage  to  enter  it  since  the  day  of  their  departure. 
All  those  cities  which  were  privileged  to  have  a  college 
55 


210  HISTORY   OF    THE   SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

were  most  anxious  to  bear  the  expenses,  and  the  inhab- 
itants vied  with  each  other  for  the  honor  of  presenting 
furniture,  provisions,  and  funds  to  the  holy  religious. 
Numbers  presented  themselves,  seeking  admission  into 
that  Order  which  had  been  so  calumniated,  so  persecuted, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  so  much  beloved.  In  all  parts, 
there  existed  a  strong  desire  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
the  people  for  the  reestablishment  of  the  society.  On 
beholdino-  the  ruins  resultino;  from  the  revolution  which 
modern  philosophy  had  inaugurated,  each  one  exclaimed 
that  the  Society  of  Jesus  alone,  by  its  teaching  and 
preaching,  was  capable  of  repairing  the  evil.  To  meet 
the  necessities  of  the  times,  several  congregations,  on  the 
plan  of  the  society,  had  been  formed,  with  the  intention 
of  joining  it,  in  case  it  should  be  again  restored  to  its 
former  condition.  Of  these,  the  Congregation  of  the 
"Sacred  Heart"  was  the  first.  Founded  in  Belgium,  in 
1794,  by  the  Prince  Abbe  de  Broglie  and  the  Abbes  Va- 
rin  and  de  Tournely,  it  received  among  its  members 
Father  Pey,  a  secularized  Jesuit,  who  became  its  director. 
Some  time  later,  the  Society  of  the  "  Faith  of  Jesus' 
was  founded  at  Borne,  on  the  same  plan,  and  both  con 
gregations  were  merged  into  one,  under  the  denomination 
of  Fathers  of  the  Faith.  Many  of  the  members  were 
subsequently  received  into  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

Under  the  protection  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  the 
Jesuits  had  opened  missions  in  the  north,  where  they  met 
with  the  most  cheering  success,  and  were  about  to  enlarge 
the  field  of  their  labors,  when  Father  Gabriel  Gruber 
was  taken  from  them.  He  died  the  victim  of  a  confla- 
gration, which  occurred  on  the  night  of  the  25th  of 
March,  1805.  Count  Joseph  de  Maistre,  who  had  hur- 
ried to  the  scene  of  disaster,  received  the  last  bless- 
ing and  dying  breath  of  the  General  of  tjie  Society  of 
Jesus. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  GABRIEL  GRUBER.   211 

This  loss  was  a  heavy  one  to  the  reviving  Institute. 
Humanly  speaking,  it  might  reasonably  be  asked  how 
Father  G ruber  could  possibly  be  replaced,  who,  during 
three  reigns,  had  enjoyed  such  great  favor  at  court,  and 
through  whom  the  Order  was  so  loved  and  appreciated  as 
to  have  secured  to  it,  until  his  death,  the  good-will  and 
protection  of  the  schismatic  princes  who  had  admitted  it 
into  their  states.  But  Providence  had  already  done  so 
much  that  the  Fathers  might  well  be  of  good  heart,  and 
rely  on  it  for  the  future  of  the  society.  Father  Lustyg, 
who  had  been  appointed  Vicar-General,  convoked  the  as- 
sembly for  the  27th  of  August,  and,  on  the  2d  of  Sep- 
tember, Father  Brzozowski  was  elected  twentieth  Gen^^ral 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 


212  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 


TWENTIETH  GENERAL. 
1805— 1830. 

I. 

Father  Uruber  had  only  to  sow  and  reap  during  his 
very  short  government.  It  was  the  lot  of  his  successor 
to  have  to  struggle  against  more  than  one  difficulty.  If 
great  consolations  were  reserved  for  him,  Providence  had, 
likewise,  severe  trials  in  store. 

The  missions  confided  b}'  the  government  to  the  so- 
ciety were  prosperous  beyond  all  expectation.  Father 
Fiddle  Grivel,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  banks  of  the 
Volga,  writes  thus,  under  date  of  April  5th,  1805  : 

"But  twenty  months  have  elapsed  since  the  society  took  charge 
of  these  missions,  and  already  there  is  a  marked  change.  There 
are  one  hundred  thousand  Catholics  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
Saratof.  They  are  divided  into  ten  missions,  of  which  six  are  on 
the  right,  and  four  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  Each  mission 
comprises  two,  three,  four,  or  five  villages.  My  mission  is  at 
Krasnopolis,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  I  have  nine  hundred 
and  sixty-two  communicants  in  four  colonics,  or  villages,  in  each 
of  which  there  is  a  neat  wooden  church. 

"This  is  not  Japan,  nor  the  land  of  the  Hurons,  nor  is  it  Para- 
guay. It  is  Germany  in  miniature,  as  far  as  morals  are  con- 
cerned, and,  up  to  this  time,  we  have  had  no  reason  to  anticipate 
martyrdom.  I  am  content,  and  am  willing  to  remain  here  for 
the  rest  of  my  life." 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THADDEUS  BRZOZOWSKI.       •  213 

The  Catholics  of  Livonia  were  verv  Paridlis.  Father 
Coince  undertook  to  have  them  freed  from  the  rule  of 
the  Lutherans.  He  was,  in  consequence,  accused  of 
bringing  trouble  into  the  province,  and  proceedings 
were  commenced  against  him;  but,  strong  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  innocence,  he  pursued  his  labors,  and 
the  Emperor  Alexander  issued  a  decree  according  to  the 
Catholics  of  Livonia  full  liberty  to  practise  their  religion. 
The  charity  of  the  holy  missionary  went  still  further. 
The  physical  sufferings  of  the  Catholics  were  difficult  to 
alleviate,  for  want  of  available  means.  Father  Coince  had 
only  his  zeal  and  his  poverty.  He  went  around  soliciting 
aid,  until  he  at  length  succeeded  in  founding  a  hospital 
for  the  sick  poor,  not  only  for  the  time  being,  but  per- 
manently. 

The  mission  of  the  Caucasus  was,  in  like  manner,  most 
successful.  Peopled  by  the  very  scum  of  the  prisoners 
from  all  nations,  it  could  be  only  repulsive  to  the  good 
missionaries.  But,  by  dint  of  untiring  patience  and  mild 
charity,  they  succeeded  in  subduing  those  ferocious  and 
degraded  human  beings,  implanting  within  their  breasts 
Christian  feelings,  moulding  their  hard  natures,  and  en- 
tirely regenerating  them. 

All  the  reports,  however,  were  not  alike  favorable. 
Scarcely  had  the  society  been  reestablished  in  the  king- 
dom of  Naples,  when  it  was  again  expelled,  in  the  month 
of  March,  180G.  Ferdinand  IV,  dethroned  by  the  French, 
was  succeeded  by  Joseph  Bonaparte,  brother  of  Napoleon, 
and  the  Jesuits,  who  had  been  banished  at  the  same  time, 
proceeded,  by  command  of  the  Pope,  to  the  Pontifical 
States. 

"  Holy  Father,"  said  some  to  Pius  VII,  "  in  giving 
asylum  to  the  Jesuits,  you  expose  yourself  to  the  dis- 
pleasure of  Napoleon." 

"It  is  for  the  Holy  See  and  for  the  Church  that  they 
55* 


214*  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

suffer,"  replied  the  Pope.  "  I  must  follow  the  example 
of  Clement  XIII." 

Very  soon,  the  Pontiff  himself  and  the  Sacred  College 
M'ere  banished  from  Rome,  and  Father  Joseph  Pignatelli 
appealed  to  public  charity  for  the  head  of  the  Church, 
and  for  the  Cardinals,  who  were  deprived  of  all  they 
possessed,  and  reduced  to  dependence  upon  those  who  per- 
secuted them. 

The  Emperor  Alexander  remained  favorable  to  the 
Order  of  St.  Ignatius,  and  had  requested  its  superior  to 
send  missionaries  to  Siberia  and  the  Crimea,  in  order  to 
instruct  and  civilize  the  inhabitants  of  those  places.  The 
Father-General,  availing  himself  of  the  good-will  of  the 
Emperor,  addressed  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
Count  Rasoumoffski,  urging  him  to  relieve  the  colleges 
of  the  society  from  the  dominion  of  the  University, 
whose  rivalry  impeded  the  action  of  the  Jesuits.  He 
su£o;ested  that  the  celebrated  College  of  Polotsk  should 
be  constituted  a  university,  under  the  immediate  control 
of  the  government.  Count  de  Maistre,  who  possessed 
great  influence  among  the  upper  classes  of  society,  and 
those  who  frequented  the  court  of  Alexander,  gave  all 
the  support  in  his  power  to  the  proposed  measure,  and, 
in  1812,  the  College  of  Polotsk  was  constituted  a  univers- 
ity,  with  all  the  privileges  and  powers  desired. 

In  the  same  year.  Napoleon  carried  his  victorious  arms 
to  the  very  interior  of  Russia.  At  the  same  time,  the 
General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  learned  that  Spain  had  re- 
volted airainst  the  French  rule,  and  he  felt  that  the  Jes- 
uits  would  there  be  gladly  welcomed  by  that  people  who 
had  not  only  been  depressed  and  worn  down  by  the  many 
struggles  they  had  had  to  encounter,  but,  also,  deeply 
wounded  in  their  sentiments  of  patriotism  and  national 
pride.  Father  Thaddeus  requested,  through  the  Minister, 
permission  to  proceed  to  Spain,  for  which  country  he  set 


QENERALSIIIP    OF    TIIADDEUS    BRZOZOWSKI.  215 

out,  in  December,  1812,  accompanied  by  five  other  Fatliers, 
for  the  purpose  of  reestablishing  the  society  in  the  country 
of  its  holy  founder. 

During  his  absence,  Anglicanism,  turning  to  account 
the  Anglo-Russian  alliance,  introduced  the  Bible  Society 
into  St.  Petersburg,  and  flattered  itself  with  the  hope  of 
ultimately  expelling  the  Jesuits,  whose  watchfulness  ob- 
structed the  propagation  of  their  principles.  Prince  Ga- 
litzin,  Min-ister  of  Public  Worship,  was  among  the  fore- 
most to  evince  his  enthusiasm  for  the  Bible  Society  and  to 
propagate  it.  He  explained  to  the  Emperor  its  advant- 
ages, and  His  Majesty  was  struck  with  admiration.  From 
that  time  the  Bible  became  the  fashion,  and  not  compre- 
hending the  importance  of  the  falsifications  denounced  by 
the  Jesuits,  no  one  paid  any  attention  to  their  warnings. 

The  hour  of  Providence  had  arrived.  Russia,  without 
being  aware  of  the  fact,  had  completed  the  work  of  the 
conservation  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Anglicanism  be- 
lieved itself  pursuing  its  own  interests;  on  the  contrary,  it 
was  subserving  those  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

The  French  had  captured  and  abandoned  Moscow. 
They  fled  before  the  flames  by  which  they  were  menaced 
in  every  direction,  and  the  rigors  of  a  climate  which  deci- 
mated their  ranks.  The  Jesuits  devoted  themselves  to 
the  necessities  of  that  army,  which  showed  itself  as  cour- 
ageous in  its  reverses  as  in  its  triumphs.  They  nursed 
the  sick  and  wounded,  upon  whom  they  bestowed  e^erj 
care  that  charity  could  suggest.  In  thus  pursuing  their 
divine  calling,  twelve  of  the  Fathers  met  their  death. 

The  disasters  of  this  unfortunate  retreat  of  the  French 
army  were  speedily  followed  by  the  downfall  of  Napoleon, 
and  the  restoration  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  to  the  throne 
of  France.  Pius  VII,  who  had  been  firmly  reinstated  in 
his  temporal  authority,  felt  that  the  time  had  arrived  to 
restore  to  the  whole  Catholic  world  the  illustrious  Order  of 


216    *  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

'which  it  had  been  deprived  by  heresy  and  infidelity,  and 
which  the  whole  episcojiate  loudly  demanded,  in  repara- 
tion for  all  the  wronsrs  which  the  Church  had  sufi'ered. 

The  house  of  the  Gesu  at  Rome  had,  at  the  desire  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  been  preserved  intact,  as  it  had 
been  found  on  the  day  of  the  arrest  of  Father  Ricci. 
The  library  alone  had  been  sold  at  public  auction,  by 
those  who  Vvcre  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  Brief 
of  Suppression.  The  church  had  been  stripped,  by  the 
French  soldiery,  of  the  silver  statue  of  St.  Ignatius,  and 
of  other  valuable  ornaments,  but  was  still  magnificent. 
The  house  was  occupied  by  priests,  for  the  most  part 
former  Jesuits,  who  lived  in  community,  the  only  change 
being  in  the  habit.  The  same  services  and  the  same  ser- 
mons had  been  perpetuated  in  the  church,  and  Father 
Muzzarelli  had  lately  established  there  the  devotion  of  the 
Month  of  Mary,  which  has  now  become  universal. 

On  the  7th  of  August,  1814,  the  city  of  Rome  re- 
sounded with  the  joyous  exultation  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion, who,  in  holiday  array,  were  making  their  way  to 
the  Quirinal,  where  they  awaited  the  Sovereign  Pontifi", 
shouting,  "Long  live  the  Holy  Father!"  "Long  live  the 
Society  of  Jesus !  "  On  leaving  the  palace,  the  Pope  was 
greeted  with  redoubled  enthusiasm  and  acclamation,  the 
concourse  following  him  to  the  Gesu.  There,  in  that 
church,  which  was  decorated  as  it  was  wont  to  be  in  the 
most  triumphant  days  of  the  society,  were  assembled  all 
the  venerable  Fathers  of  the  Order,  who,  in  response  to 
the  Pontifi's  call,  had  flocked  from  all  parts,  and  now,  to 
the  number  of  eighty-six,  awaited  the  arrival  of  His 
Holiness.  Among  them  was  Father  Albert  de  Montaldo, 
who  was  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  years  of  age,  and  who 
had  entered  the  society  on  the  12th  of  September,  1706, 
just  one  hundred  and  eight  years  prior  to  the  day  on  which 
he  was  then  permitted  the  happiness  of  witnessing  its  re- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    TIIADDEUS    BRZOZOWSKI.  217 

establisliment.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff  entered  the  church, 
escorted  by  the  members  of  the  Sacred  College  and  the 
leading  personages  of  Rome.  The  Bull  reestablishing 
the  Order  of  St.  Ignatius  throughout  the  world,  was 
publicly  read  amid  the  deepest  emotion,  and  the  joyful 
tears  of  all  those  present  on  that  solemn  and  consoling 
occasion. 

No  sooner  was  this  Bull  promulgated,  than  all  the  old 
Jesuits  requested  to  be  again  admitted  into  the  Order 
which  they  had  never  ceased  to  mourn,  and  many  were 
the  applications  for  admission  into  the  novitiate  of  St. 
Andrew.  The  Pope,  feeling  the  difficulties  which  might 
possibly  arise  in  the  execution  of  the  Bull,  consequent 
upon  the  absence  from  Piome  of  the  General,  appointed 
Father  Panizoni  Vicar-General  for  the  States  of  the 
Church,  until  such  time  as  Father  Brzozowski  should  take 
other  steps,  for  every  city  in  Italy  was  desirous  of  having 
Fathers  and  colleges  of  the  society.  All  the  Jesuits  of 
South  America,  those  whom  the  Catholic  countries  of 
Europe  had  rejected,  all  those  venerable  exiles  directed 
their  steps  to  that  house  at  Home,  their  true  Alma  3Iafer, 
there  to  make  offerinir  of  what  remained  to  them  of  life 
and  energy.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  they  were 
called  into  the  cities  and  colleges  of  Ferrara,  Terni,  Or- 
vieto,  Viterbo,  Urbino,  Tivoli,  and  other  places.  For  the 
entire  people  of  Romagna,  the  Jesuits  were  true  saviors. 

On  the  21st  of  December,  1814,  Father  John  Perelli 
was  appointed  Provincial  of  Pvome  and  Vicar-General. 
On  the  11th  of  January,  1815,  the  King  of  Sardinia  and 
Piedmont,  Charles  Emmanuel,  who,  after  the  death  of  his 
pious  wife,  Clotilda  of  France,  had  abdicated  in  favor  of 
his  brother,  Victor  Emmanuel,  and  retired  to  Rome,  there 
to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  prayer  and  meditation, 
entered  the  novitiate  of  St.  Andrew.  He  had  requested 
the  favor  of  being  received  into  the  Society  of  Jesus.     He 


218  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

cheerfully  assumed  the  holy  habit  of  the  novices,  and  tock 
part  in  their  exercises  with  the  most  edifying  punctuality, 
notwithstanding  his  advanced  age  (sixty-four),  and  his 
many  infirmities.  But  the  fervent  novice  enjoyed  this 
happiness  only  for  the  short  space  of  four  years,  the  calmest 
and  happiest  of  his  life.  He  died  on  the  7th  of  October, 
1819,  having  asked  and*  obtained  permission  to  be  interred 
in  his  habit  of  novice  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  His  brother 
had  a  noble  monument  erected  to  his  memory,  but  lacked 
the  moral  courage  to  have  him  there  represented  in  the 
livery  which  his  piety  had  selected,  and  in  which  he  felt 
himself  more  honored*  than  he  had  been  in  the  possession 
of  the  hereditary  diadem  which  he  had  voluntarily  re- 
nounced. 

II. 

The  grandson  of  the  King  of  Spain  who  had  expelled 
the  Jesuits  with  so  much  severity,  and  from  such  hid- 
den motives,  Ferdinand  VII,  son  of  Charles  IV,  had  just 
returned  to  his  kingdom,  and  once  more  occupied  the 
throne  of  his  forefathers.  He  had  scarcely  assumed  pos- 
session of  this  much-disputed  inheritance,  when  there 
arose,  from  all  parts  of  his  kingdom,  a  simultaneous  de- 
mand for  the  repeal  of  the  decree  which  banished  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus.  Through  their  bishops  and  magistrates 
the  people  called  for  reparation,  urging  most  strenuously 
the  recall  of  those  Jesuits  who  had  been  forced  away  from 
them,  in  spite  of  their  protestations  and  their  afflictions. 
Ferdinand  was  most  anxious  to  have  them  recalled,  and  by 
a  decree  reinstated  them,  acknowledging,  at  the  same  time, 
that  their  expulsion  had  been  the  result  of  the  dark  and 
wicked  designs  of  the  common  enemies  of  both  the  Church 
and  the  crown. 

On  the  fact  of  the  reestablishment  becoming  known,  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  aged  members  gladly  returned  to  the 


GENERALSHIP   OF    THADDEUS    BRZOZOWSKI.  219 

land  of  their  birth,  and  to  that  life  of  submission  for  which 
they  had  so  long  mourned.  Among  that  number  we  find 
Father  Araoz,  a  descendant  of  the  family  of  the  holy 
founder.  Such  of  the  property  as  had  not  been  sold,  was 
restored  to  the  society,  and  on  the  29th  of  March,  1816, 
Father  Emmanuel  de  Zuniga.  Commissary-General  for  the 
reestablishment  of  his  Order  in  Spain,  proceeded  to  take 
possession  of  the  Koyal  College.  He  was  accompanied  by 
the  Duke  del  Infantado  and ,  the  Junta,  who  formally 
placed  the  keys  in  his  hands.  On  that  very  day  the  classes 
were  commenced.  Fifty-six  cities  were  there  represented. 
There  was  not  a  sufficiency  of  Fathers,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  open  a  novitiate.  Throughout  Spain,  the 
people  were  loud  in  their  expressions  in  favor  of  the  Jes- 
uits, and  protested  against  the  impiety  of  the  Ministers 
who,  under  the  reign  of  Charles  III,  had  banished  them. 
Modena,  Sardinia,  and  Switzerland  emulated  each  other 
in  the  eagerness  with  which  they  recalled  the  Jesuits. 
Every  country  stood  in  need  of  a  system  of  education 
which  should  be  a  o-uarantee  for  the  future.  In  Belo-ium, 
the  ^'■Fathers  of  the  Faith,'^  who  were  under  the  direction 
of  a  former  Jesuit,  requested  to  be  incorporated  in  the 
Society  of  Jesus;  but,  in  order  to  obtain  that  favor,  it  was 
necessary  for  them  to  pass  through  the  novitiate  required 
by  the  laws  of  the  society.  The  Bishop  of  Ghent,  Maurice 
de  Broglie,  undertook  to  establish  such  a  novitiate,  the 
Marquis  de  Rhodes  supplying  the  funds  for  the  prelimi- 
nary expenses,  and  the  Count  de  Thiennes  giving  up,  for 
that  purpose,  his  chateau  of  Buy mbeke,  where  the  novices 
were  installed.  A  few  months  afterward,  the  war  neces- 
sitated their  abandoning  this  asylum,  which  was  no  longer 
the  abode  of  peace  and  tranquillity,  and  Father  Fonteyne, 
Superior  of  the  Jesuits  of  Holland,  invited  them  to  l)is- 
telberg,  where  a  country  house  was  placed  at  their  dis- 
posal by  M,  Gobert.     After  the  political  changes  caused 


220  HISTORY   OF  THE   SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

by  the  final  fall  of  Napoleon  at  Waterloo,  King  William 
all  at  once,  ordered  the  Jesuits  of  Distelberg  to  disperse. 
Father  Le  Blanc  thus  replied : 

"  One  single  word  from  my  Lord  the  Bishop  will  suffice  to  sepa- 
rate us.  If  the  prelate  does  not  give  that  word,  armed  forces,  no 
doubt,  will  know  how  to  expel  the  peaceable  occupants  of  this 
house." 

Father  Le  Blanc  informed  the  Abbe  Lesurre,  Vicar- 
General  of  Ghent,  of  the  order  he  had  received,  and  his 
reply  thereto.  The  latter  wrote  to  the  Bishop,  who  was 
absent  at  the  time,  and  the  Prince  de  Broglie  replied: 

"The  duty  of  a  captain  is  to  stand  by  his  faithful  soldiers  and 
defend  them.  I  will  not,  then,  allow  the  Jesuits  to  be  subjected 
to  the  attacks  of  their  enemies.  Before  you  reach  them,  you  will 
have  to  pass  over  my  dead  body.  I  request  that  the  gates  of  my 
palace  be  opened  for  the  reception  of  as  many  as  it  is  capable  of 
accommodating." 

The  prelate  then  went  to  Distelberg,  encouraged  the 
Jesuits,  and  ordered  them  not  to  seek  other  shelter  than 
the  episcopal  palace.  It  was  time  ;  the  armed  force  pre- 
sented itself,  and  the  novices  withdrew  to  the  palace.  The 
King  took  umbrage  at  the  firm  determination  of  the 
Bishop,  who  thus  dared  to  denounce  the  new  constitution 
as  inimical  to  religion.  In  1817,  the  Prince  Bishop  was 
condemned  to  exile  by  the  Protestant  government,  and 
the  Jesuits  were  charged  with  havinjr  incited  him  to  re- 
sist  the  laws  of  the  state.  Two  thieves,  who  had  been 
condemned  to  hard  labor,  were  to  be  publicly  exposed  in 
the  market-place.  They  selected  the  same  day  and  the 
same  place  to  proclaim  the  condemnation  of  the  prelate, 
and  tlie  notice  was  placarded  on  a  post  placed  between 
the  two  malefactors !     Could  they  not  see  the  honor  they 


GENERALSHIP    OF    TIIADDEUS    BllZOZOWSKI.  221 

were  tlius  conferring  upon  the  venerable  Bisliop  ?  No 
Catholic  could  have  escaped  perceiving  the  analogy. 

The  Jesuits  remained  at  the  episcopal  palace.  On  the 
21st  of  February,  1818,  a  detachment  of  soldiers  accom- 
panied the  King's  attorney  to  the  palace,  where  they  ar- 
rested the-  Abbe  Lesurre,  placed  the  building  under  seal, 
and  drove  the  religious  out.  A  portion  sought  refuge  in 
Switzerland  ;  the  rest  in  the  Seminary  of  Ilildesheim,  in 
Hanover,  which  was  under  the  direction  of  Father  Lusken. 
Only  a  few  of  the  professed  members  remained  in  Bel- 
gium, there  to  continue  still  longer  their  labors  for  the 
glory  of  God. 

In  France,  the  Jesuits  had  powerfully  contributed  to 
the  religious  reaction  which  had  been  eflfected  during  the 
reign  of  Napoleon.  True,  they  were  unable  to  labor  so 
effectually  as  they  might  have  done  had  they  still  been 
regulated  by  their  own  constitutions  ;  but  their  ministry, 
as  secular  priests,  produced  great  results  for  the  glory  of 
God.  They  gave  missions  which  influenced  the  masses, 
revivified  their  faith,  called  forth  repentance,  and  reani- 
mated their  piety.  They  cooperated  with  the  "  Fathers  of 
the  Faith,"  whose  labors  were  directed  to  a  like  end,  and 
w^io  sighed  for  the  moment  when  they  might  have  the 
privilege  of  being  incorporated  in  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Father  Varin,  their  Superior,  who  was  earnestly  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  regenerating  society  by  means  of 
education,  had  founded,  at  Paris,  the  Order  of  the  Ladies 
of  the  Sacred  Heart,  which,  in  an  incredibly  short  time, 
acquired  extraordinary  extension  and  celebrity.  Father 
Bacoffe,  a  Jesuit,  had  founded,  at  Besanyon,  a  society  for 
the  education  of  the  children  of  the  peasantry.  Another 
Jesuit,  Father  Delpuits,  devoted  his  exertions  to  those 
youths  whose  good  conduct  inspired  some  hopes  for  the 
future  of  religion.  He  enrolled  them  into  a  sort  of  so- 
56 


222  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ciety,  thus  forming,  as  it  were,  the  nucleus  of  a  Congre- 
gation of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  He  trained  them  to  an 
apostleship  for  society,  as  well  as  for  the  poor,  whom  they 
visited  and  assisted.  In  a  few  years,  this  pious  associa- 
tion was  extended  to  the  principal  cities  of  France,  and 
included  among  its  members  t?ie  most  illustrious  names 
and  the  most  distinguished  talents. 

Such  was  the  status  of  the  Jesuits  in  France  when  the 
Bull  of  their  reestablishment  was  published,  on  the  7th 
of  August,  1814.  They  had  not  the  time  to  reorganize 
themselves  into  a  religious  community.  The  return  of 
Napoleon,  the  exile  of  the  Bourbons,  and  the  political 
troubles  resulting  therefrom,  prolonged  the  secularization 
of  these  venerable  religious,  whose  number  death  yearly 
reduced,  without,  however,  disheartening  their  survivors. 

After  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  the  Prince  de  Talleyrand, 
speaking  with  Louis  XVIII  on  the  most  advisable  means 
of  securing  to  his  family  the  permanent  possession  of  the 
throne,  which  revolutions  had  so  frequently  shaken  or 
subverted,  "Sire,"  said  he,  "it  is  your  Majesty's  desire 
to  maintain  yourself  in  the  Tuilleries.  It  is,  then,  of  the 
first  importance  to  take  the  necessary  precautions.  A 
good,  solid  education  alone  can  secure  to  future  genera- 
tions that  interior  peace,  the  necessity  of  which  is  felt 
by  all.  The  surest  means  of  attaining  this  end,  without 
difficulty,  is  the  legal  reestablishment  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus." 

Louis  XVIII  raised  himself  up,  regarded  his  apostate 
Minister,  from  head  to  foot,  with  a  disdainful  look,  and 
replied  simply  by  a  sarcastic  smile.  Louis  XVIII  was 
a  philosopher.  Talleyrand  was  in  nowise  taken  aback; 
he  was  an  apostate,  but  he  was  also  a  politician.  It  ap- 
peared to  him  that  the  Jesuits  were  the  safest  instru- 
ments to  insure  the  restoration  of  principles  of  subor- 
dination, and  of  the  respect  due"  to  authority;   hence  his 


GENERALSHIP    OF    THADDEUS    BRZOZOWSKI.  223 

proposition.  He  added:  "I  declare  to  your  Majesty  that 
the  Society  of  Jesus  alone  can  clear  away  the  wrecks  of 
the  past  by  controlling  education,  so  as  to  insure  the  wel- 
fare of  the  future." 

The  King  requested  a  few  weeks  for  reflection  ;  but,  in 
the  mean  time,  the  Minister  was  dismissed.  Talleyrand 
was,  above  all  things,  desirous  of  power.  To  him  the 
Society  of  Jesus  appeared  to  be  indispensable  for  the 
consolidation  of  the  throne.  Louis  XVIII  would  not 
volerate  the  society  ;  for  had  he  not  discarded  the  Min- 
ister who  had  proposed  their  return  ?  The  plan  of  the 
celebrated  diplomatist  was  soon  understood.  To  allow  the 
Jesuits  to  return  to  France,  recruit,  develop  themselves, 
secure  control  over  education,  devote  themselves  to  the 
pulpit  and  the  direction  of  souls,  was  to  afford  to  power 
the  most  solid  support.  Now  that  power  had  passed  into 
other  hands,  it  was  all-important  that  it  should  not  be 
allowed  this  additional  support.  For  this  end,  it  was 
necessary  to  exclude  the  Jesuits,  and,  at  any  price,  im- 
pede their  action,  and  put  an  end  to  their  very  exist- 
ence. 

The  Jesuits,  who  were  ignorant  of  these  manoeuvres,  and 
who  were  sought  for  by  several  bishops,  united  themselves, 
under  the  direction  of  Father  de  Cloriviere,  their  Superior, 
in  a  house  in  the  Rue  des  Postes,  which  the  nuns  of  the 
Visitation  had  given  up  to  them,  and  admitted  into  the  Or- 
der, one  by  one,  the  "Fathers  of  the  Faith."  They  felt  at 
liberty,  in  accordance  with  the  charter,  to  live  in  common, 
to  conform  as  much  as  possible  to  their  rules,  and  to  re- 
spond to  the  call  made  upon  them  by  the  bishops.  Thus 
it  was  that  they  very  soon  possessed  establishments  at 
.Bordeaux,  Soissons,  Amiens,  Forcalquier,  Montmorillon, 
and  at  St.  Anne  d'Auray.  They  worked  quietly,  and  kept 
aloof  from  the  political  agitations  which  were  excited  by 
the  press.     They  had  once  more  commenced  teaching  in 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

the  ecclesiastical  schools,  founded  by  several  bishops,  and 
their  success  promised  much  for  the  future. 

The  Jesuits,  not  having  a  legal  existence  in  France,  and 
not  bearing  the  title  of  a  religious  corporation,  became  ob- 
jects of  attack  on  the  part  of  all  the  Liberal  press.  The 
Voltairian  writers  accused  them  of  concealins;  themselves, 
in  order  to  be  the  better  able  to  conspire,  and,  from  the 
time  when  the  first  blow  was  aimed  at  them  by  the  corrupt 
press,  the  Liberals  no  longer  saw  in  either  priests  or  Chris- 
tian laymen,  but  Jesuits,  more  or  less  disguised,  and  whom 
each  one  was  free  to  insult  with  impunity. 

But  all  this  did  not  arrest  vocations.  Father  Simpson, 
a  former  member  of  the  society,  who  had  been  appointed 
Provincial  of  France,  on  the  5th  of  January,  1820,  estab- 
lished a  novitiate  at  Montrouge,  near  Paris.  He  accom- 
plished this  as  quietly  as  possible,  in  order  not  to  irritate 
further  the  public  mind.  Several  bishops  invited  them  to 
give  missions  in  their  respective  dioceses.  The  Jesuits 
knew  full  well  the  opposition  they  would  meet  with.  The 
blind  hatred  which  the  enemies  of  religion  entertained  for 
them  might  be  carried  to  any  excess ;  but  the  spirit  of 
the  Institute  was  preserved  inviolate  in  each  one  of  its 
former  members.  These  latter  had  transmitted  it  intact  to 
all  the  new-comers,  and  that  spirit  now,  as  ever,  engendered 
heroes.  The  Jesuits  yielded  to  the  desires  of  the  prelates. 
The  news  of  the  coming  mission  spread  in  each  of  the  dio- 
ceses where  the  apostles  were  expected.  The  Liberals  vowed 
that  they  would  prevent  the  triumph  anticipated  for  relig 
ion  by  the  chief  pastors.  On  the  21st  of  October,  1819, 
one  of  the  papers  stated  that,  in  consequence  of  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  Curate,  the  mission  would  not  take  place  at 
Brest,  as  had  been  announced.  The  same  thing  occurred* 
at  Quimper,  it  being,  in  this  case,  the  Bishop  who  ob- 
jected. The  Cure  of  Brest  contradicted  the  statement  of 
the  journal;  the   Bishop  of  Quimper   complained  to  the 


GENERALSHIP   OF   TIIADDEUS    BRZOZOWSKI.  225 

Prefect.  This  was  the  signal  for  an  outbreak.  The  in- 
surgents paraded  the  streets,  shouting  ^^  Death  to  the  Jes- 
uifs!''  '■'Down  with  Christ  and  religion  ! '^  The  autliori- 
ties  showed  weakness  in  the  presence  of  the  rioters,  and 
abandoned  reliuion  to  their  sacrilegious  insults.  The  mis- 
sionaries  were  compelled  to  leave  the  place  without  being 
heard.  More  successful  in  many  other  cities,  they  effected 
a  great  deal  of  good,  and  made  many  striking  conversions. 
Their  eloquence  reached  the  hearts  of  the  most  hardened 
sinners  ;  every  eye  was  moistened,  and  when  the  Jesuit  de- 
scended from  the  pulpit,  where  his  words  had  caused  souls 
to  tremble,  the  people  followed  him,  begging  him  to  com- 
plete their  reconciliation  with  God.  Not  unfrequently 
the  missionaries  passed  half  the  night  in  the  confessional. 
The  exasperation  of  the  impious,  on  hearing  of  these 
apostolical  triumphs,  knew  no  bounds.  Their  anger 
teemed  forth  in  the  columns  of  their  journals  :  the  govern- 
ment sanctioned  them  ;  the  King  felt  no  indignation.  Tal- 
leyrand smiled  derisively,  and  despised  the  King,  the 
government,  and  France.  Alas  !  he  sneered  also  at  God 
and  at  religion.     The  apostate  had  staked  his  eternity. 

III. 

The  Protestants  of  Maryland  were  acquainted  with  the 
wonderful  progress  in  civilization  effected  by  the  Jesuits, 
while  struck  with  admiration  for  their  incomparable  charity, 
their  wonderful  patience,  and  that  perseverance  which  no 
obstacles  could  impede,  no  difficulties  discourage.  They 
were  too  deeply  interested  in  this  successful  development 
to  impede  its  progress  by  persisting  in  their  system  of  re- 
ligious intolerance.  They  felt  that  the  Jesuits  alone  pos- 
sessed the  virtues  and  talents  necessary  to  continue  the 
work  which,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  attended  with  so 
much  success,  and  they  did  all  in  their  power  to  assist 
them.  Father  Carroll,  Bishop  of  Baltimore,  had  suc- 
56* 


226  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

ceeded  in  having  the  free  exercise  of  the  Catholic  reliirion 
officially  proclaimed,  which  fact  materially  facilitated  its 
increase,  and'  had  placed  the  missions  in  a  fair  position  to 
achieve  success.  In  1815,  the  College  of  Georgetown  was 
endowed  with  the  title  and  privileges  of  a  university;  but 
the  first  Metropolitan  of  Baltimore  did  not  long  enjoy  this 
success.  On  the  2d  of  December  of  the  same  year,  the 
anniversary  of  the  death  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  Father 
John  Carroll  went  to  receive  the  reward  for  which  he  had 
so  long  and  so  earnestly  labored  during  his  life.  Before 
his  death  he  had  founded  a  novitiate  of  the  society  at 
Whitemarsh,  where  nineteen  youths  had  already  been  ad- 
mitted. They  all  assisted  at  the  obsequies  of  the  revered 
prelate,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  that  city,  Catholic  priests 
went  in  procession  in  cassock  and  surplice,  preceded  by 
the  cross-bearer.  The  deceased  had  been  the  means  of 
securing  to  the  Catholics  full  liberty  in  the  practice  of 
their  religion,  and  the  first  public  manifestation  of  it  in  his 
episcopal  city  took  place  while  paying  the  last  honors  to 
his  remains.  Two  years  later,  his  successor  in  the  See  of 
Baltimore,  Father  Leonard  Neale,  went  to  join  him  in 
heaven  ;  but  the  void  they  had  left  was  quickly  filled.  In 
1819,  the  society  numbered  eighty-six  members  in  the  mis- 
sions of  Maryland. 

In  Russia,  the  Bible  Society,  forgetful  that  they  them- 
selves had  come  there  for  the  purpose  of  proselytizing, 
directed  attention  to  the  numbers  of  conversions,  which 
were  to  be  attributed  more  to  the  example  than  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Jesuits.  The  government  had  not  taken  par- 
ticular notice  of  them,  and  attached  but  little  importance 
to  their  proceedings,  when  Providence,  seeing  that  the  time 
had  arrived  to  establish  the  centre  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
in  the  centre  of  Catholicity,  permitted  a  most  striking  con 
version  to  occur,  which  aroused  the  anger  of  all  those  high 
est  in  power. 


GENERALSniP    OF   TIIADDEUS    BRZOZOWSKI.  227 

The  young  Alexander  GalUzin,  only  fifteen  years  of 
age,  a  student  of  the  Jesuits,  and  nephew  of  the  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Worship,  after  endeavoring  to  convert  the 
Fathers  to  the  Greek  religion,  suddenly  proclaimed  him- 
self a  Catholic,  and  evinced  a  disposition  to  defend,  be- 
fore and  against  every  one,  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  to 
which  he  had  been  led  by  grace  alone.  The  affair  as- 
sumed a  threatening  aspect  for  the  Fathers.  Several  high 
personages  were  suspected  of  having  secretly  joined  the 
Catholic  Church.  They  were,  consequently,  watched,  and 
the  Jesuits  were  accused  of  having  sought  their  conver- 
sion. The  Fathers  henceforth  declined  to  receive  into 
their  colleges  any  but  the  children  of  Catholics.  They  had 
agreed  to  abide  by  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  these  laws 
prohibited  the  Catholics  from  proselytizing.  They  had 
labored  for  the  conversion  of  their  pupils  by  prayer  alone, 
and  now  they  were  charged  with  enticing  them  by  contro- 
versy or  persuasion  ;  hence  the  determination  of  the  Fa- 
thers to  admit  none  but  Ca4:holics  into  their  classes. 

The  young  Prince  had  loudly  proclaimed  that  not  only 
had  the  Jesuits  not  sought  to  convert  him,  but  that,  more- 
over, not  one  of  them  would  receive  his  abjuration.  This 
did  not  prevent  the  Jesuits  being  closely  watched,  even  at 
the  confessional,  so  as  to  discover  the  names  of  their  peni- 
tents. All  their  pupils  were  interrogated,  even  those  who 
had  left  the  college.  One  and  all  declared  that  the  Fa- 
thers  never  conversed  with  them  upon  the  difference  exist- 
in"-  between  the  two  Churches,  but  had  left  them  at  full 
liberty  in  the  practice  of  their  religion.  No  matter ;  it 
was  necessary  to  accuse  the  Jesuits  of  proselytism,  and  to 
represent  them  in  this  light  to  the  Emperor,  whose  return 
had  been  announced.  Their  enemies  could  point  to  the  act- 
ual conversions,  too  few  to  cause  any  great  alarm,  but  suf- 
ficient, when  properly  exaggerated,  to  produce  the  desired 
effect,  and  determine  the  Emperor  to  expel  the  Jesuits  from 


228  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  capital  of  the  empire.  On  the  20th  of  December,  1815, 
Alexander  I  issued  a  decree,  in  which  he  set  forth  that  the 
Jesuits,  having  sought  to  convert  his  subjects  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  had  infringed  the  law,  and  were,  conse- 
quently, condemned  to  quit  the  two  capitals  of  the  empire. 
The  result  was  that,  on  the  night  of  the  20th,  the  Chief  of 
Police,  accompanied  by  an  armed  force,  surrounded  the 
college,  forced  an  entrance,  established  his  sentinels, 
placed  seals  upon  the  apartments,  read  the  decree  of 
banishment  to  the  Fathers,  whom  they  conducted,  on  the 
followina;  nio;ht,  to  the  novitiate  at  Polotsk. 

The  Greeks  and  Anglicans  of  the  Bible  Society,  eager 
to  have  the  Jesuits  still  further  removed,  did  every  thing 
in  their  power  to  persuade  Alexander  that  they  were  op- 
posed to  his  policy,  and  dangerous  to  the  state.  The 
Emperor  had  no  faith  in  all  this,  but  the  Ministers  acted 
with  as  much  rigor  with  regard  to  the  Fathers  as  if  they 
had  been  fully  empowered  to  do  so. 

The  Father-General  deeply  felt  the  necessity  of  reestab- 
lishing the  head  of  the  society  in  the  Eternal  City.  This 
change  could  not  be  effected  during  his  lifetime,  as  the 
autocrat  would  not  have  sanctioned  it;  but  Father  Brzo- 
zowski  wrote  to  him,  requesting  permission  to  go  to  Rome, 
on  business  of  his  Order.  According  to  Alexander's  views, 
the  General  of  the  society  was  not  to  leave  the  empire. 
He  imagined  that  a  fusion  of  the  various  religions  was 
practicable,  and  that  he  himself  should  be  the  head  ;  hence 
he  desired  to  retain  the  General  under  his  control,  so  that 
he  might  the  more  easily  win  the  Jesuits  over  to  the  new 
religion,  or,  in  the  event  of  their  resisting,  entirely  an- 
nihilate them.  This  was  his  reason  for  refusing  to  allow 
the  Father-General  to  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  empire. 
Thus  the  chief  of  the  Order,  in  common  with  his  breth- 
ren, was  a  prisoner  in  Russia. 

Father  Thaddeus  Brzozowski,  who  poignantly  felt  this 


GENERALSHIP  OF  THADDEUS  BRZOZOWSKI.    229 

refusal,  soon  saw  his  end  approaching,  which  he  patiently 
awaited,  and  even  joyfully  welcomed.  He  appointed  as 
Vicar-General,  during  the  vacancy,  Father  Mariano  Pe- 
trucci.  Rector  of  the  Novitiate  of  Genoa,  and,  his  time 
having  come,  he  gave  his  blessing  to  his  religious,  who 
were  assembled  around  his  death-bed,  and  said  to  them, 
"  Behold,  I  die  !  As  for  you,  it  will  not  be  long  before 
you  are  expelled  from  the  empire."  Having  uttered  these 
words,  he  expired.  It  was  on  the  5th  of  February,  1820. 
Russia  had  accomplished  the  work  assigned  to  her  by 
Divine  Providence.  She  had  preserved  the  Society  of 
Jesus. 


230  HISTORY   OF   THE    SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 


^tueralsljij  jof  |;ifl]cr  puis  iaxih, 

TWENTY-FIRST    GENERAL. 
183  O  —  18  S9. 

I. 

At  length,  tlie  Society  of  Jesus  resumed  all  the  con- 
ditions of  its  original  status.  Immediately  upon  the 
death  of  the  General,  the  Fathers  of  White  Russia  urged 
the  Emperor  to  grant  them  permission  to  send  a  few  of 
their  professed  members  to  Rome,  for  the  election  of, 
another  General.  But  this  request  was  far  from  being 
pleasing  to  the  Emperor.  So  long  as  the  General  had 
resided  in  Russia,  the  society  was,  to  a  certain  extent, 
depending  upon  the  monarch.  It  had  its  existence  only 
by  his  favor ;  it  could  act  only  in  accordance  with  his 
permission,  and  he  was  not  sorry  to  be  able  to  patronize 
an  Order  whose  celebrity  was  universal,  and  whose  power 
every  state  had  appeared  to  dread. 

Prince  Galitzin,  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  represented 
to  the  Emperor  that  their  demand  implicated  a  change 
in  the  conditions  upon  which  they  were  tolerated  in  the 
empire  ;  that  the  intention  of  Catharine  II,  in  obtaining 
from  the  Pope  permission  to  have  the  General  elected  in 
her  states,  was  to  confine  them  to  Russia,  and  that,  the 
Jesuits  having  broken  this  treaty,  no  other  course  was 
open  but  to  expel  them  at  once.  Far  better  their  expul- 
sion than  their  independence  ;  and  the  Minister  presented 
the  decree  which  he  had  prepared.     It  received  the  sig- 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  LOUIS    FORTIS.  231 

nature  of  the  Emperor,  and  was  publitslied   on  the  13th 
of  March,  1820. 

Scarcely  had  this  ukase  been  made  public,  when  the 
Catholics  flocked  to  the  churches,  overwhelmed  with 
affliction.  It  was  as  if  a  grievous  and  desolating  calamity 
had  just  been  visited  upon  the  country.  The  government 
had  resolved  not  to  tolerate  an  Order  which  was  no  longer 
under  its  control,  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  desired  to 
retain  the  talent  and  learning  of  its  members. 

Commissioners  were  appointed  in  each  of  the  cities 
where  there  was  a  house  of  the  society,  whose  duty  it  ^jas 
to  interrogate  the  Jesuits,  and,  if  possible,  prevail  upon 
them  to  give  up  their  Institute,  by  holding  out  to  them 
the  prospect  of  receiving  every  favor  at  the  hands  of  the 
government.  The  sons  of  Ignatius  preferred  exile.  They 
numbered,  in  all,  six  hundred  and  forty.  Four  aged 
members  yielded  to  the  persuasions  of  the  commission- 
ers, not  so  much  on  account  of  the  inducements  held 
out  to  them,  for  which  they  cared  little,  but  through  a 
desire  for  repose,  and  a  dread  of  the  fatigues  to  which 
they  would  be  subjected  in  their  long  and  toilsome  exile 
Father  Henry  thus  wrote  from  the  Caucasus. 

"After  having  labored  so  long  for  the  well-being  of  this  state, 
we  are  at  length  to  be  banished,  like  the  rest  of  our  brethren. 
Not  content  with  expelling  us,  the}^  would  dishonor  us  by  forcing 
us  to  apostatize.  They  have  held  out  inducements  and  used 
threats.  We  replied  that,  with  the  assistance  of  God's  grace,  we 
would  live  and  die  in  the  Society  of  Jesus." 

The  government  was  most  desirous  to  retain  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Caucasus  and  Siberia.  It  proposed  to 
them  to  renounce  at  least  the  habit  and  name  of  the  so- 
ciety. The  Jesuits  refused,  and  set  out  on  their  exile, 
despite  the  tears  and  entreaties  of  their  ever-beloved 
flocks. 


232     "  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Father  3Iariano  Petrucci  lost  no  time  in  proceeding  to 
Rome,  to  comply  with  the  wish  of  his  last  General,  and 
appoint  the  day  on  which  the  Congregation  should  meet 
for  the  election  of  a  new  leader.  On  the  18th  of  Octo- 
ber, of  the  same  year,  1820,  Father  Louis  Fortis  was 
elected  twenty-first  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  He 
was  seventy-two  years  of  age,  but  his  rare  prudence, 
great  experience,  wisdom,  and  profound  knowledge  of  hu- 
man nature,  entitled  him  to  the  sufi"rages  of  his  brethren. 
The  Jesuits  of  Prussia  were  unable  to  take  part  in  the 
election.  They  were  not  even  allowed  to  consider  them- 
selves henceforth  a  province  of  the  Order,  and,  banished 
from  the  country  which  had  sheltered  and  protected  them 
since  the  year  1773,  some  went  to  Italy,  others  to  France, 
and  the  rest  to  Galicia.  Among  these  venerable  exiles 
were  to  be  found  Fathers  Roothaan,  de  Rozaven,  and 
Nizard.  Under  the  direction  of  Father  Swietokowski, 
they  begged  to  be  permitted  to  pass  through  the  Austrian 
States.  The  Baron  de  Hauer  gave  orders  that  they 
should  be  received  with  the  honors  which  were  due  to 
apostles  sufi"ering  persecution  for  the  faith.  The  people  of 
Tarnopol  requested  that  a  few  Fathers  should  be  permitted 
to  sojourn  among  them,  in  return  for  this  hospitality,  and 
that  the  direction  of  the  college  they  had  erected  should 
be  confided  to  them.  The  Archbishop  of  Lemberg  re- 
ceived them  as  the  special  envoys  of  Providence.  Father 
Landes,  having  with  him  a  number  of  other  Jesuits,  ar- 
rived in  Vienna  on  the  7th  of  June,  1820,  and  found,  in 
tha  Archbishop  of  that  city,  a  former  member  of  the 
society.  Father  Hohenwart,  who  had  educated  the  Em- 
peror. The  Count  de  Suaren,  a  pupil  of  the  Jesuits, 
prevailed  upon  Francis  II  to  receive  Father  Landes,  to 
which  the  Emperor  consented,  and,  during  the  audience, 
addressed  him  as  follows  : 

"  I  am  not  ignorant  of  all  you  have  undergone  in  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF    PATllEll    LOUIS    FOIITIS.  233 

cause  of  religion,  and  I,  a  Catholic  Emperor,  must  not 
remain  insensible  to  all  your  sufterings.  In  spite  of  those 
who,  without  knowing  you,  hate  you,  I  throw  open  to  you 
my  Kingdom  of  Galicia.  I  have  assigned  you  revenues 
sufficient  to  maintain  fifty  Jesuits,  and  if  there  are  any 
important  statutes  of  your  constitutions  which  conflict 
with  the  laws  of  the  state,  I  empower  you  to  make  appli- 
cation for  a  dispensation. 

It  ^as  on  the  20th  of  August  that  the  Emperor  of  Aus- 
tria thus  sanctioned  the  establishment  of  the  Fathers,  and 
very  soon  the  college  of  Tarnopol  became  so  renowned 
that  even  the  Jews  sent  their  children  there  from  the  most 
distant  cities.  In  1822,  it  numbered  more  than  three 
hundred  pupils.  The  Archbishop  of  Vienna,  happy  in 
receiving  the  members  of  his  cherished  society,  more 
keenly  felt  the  desire  of  returning  to  its  bosom.  He  so- 
licited of  the  Holy  See  permission  to  lay  down  the  burden 
which  it  had  imposed  upon  him,  and,  having  obtained  his 
request,  set  out  for  Home,  where  he  joj^fully  resumed  that 
life  of  obedience  which  it  had  cost  him  so  much  grief 
to  renounce.  The  liberty  given  to  the  Catholics  of  Great 
Britain  permitted  the  Jesuits  to  extend  the  field  of  their 
labors  to  Ireland,  and  to  raise  the  peasantry  of  that  coun- 
try from  the  unhappy  condition  into  which  they  had  been 
plunged  by  the  continued  and  cruel  persecutions  of  several 
generations.  They  restored  several  churches,  reintroduced 
the  ceremonies  of  religion,  which  had  become  partly  for- 
gotten, and,  in  1822,  solemnly  celebrated  the  Feast  of  Cor- 
pus Christi,  at  Clongowes,  to  the  unspeakable  joy  of  the 
inhabitants,  who  attended  in  immense  numbers,  and,  by 
their  evidences  of  true  Irish  piety  and  devotion,  greatly 
consoled  the  missionaries. 

In  the   mean  time,  political  intrigue  had  been  at  work 
around  the  thrones  of  the  house  of   Bourbon.     Scarcely 
was  Ferdinand  YII  seated  on  that  of  Spain,  when  insurrec- 
57 


23.t  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tion,  threatening  and  bloody,  arose  and  proclaimed  the 
constitution  of  18]  2.  The  pass-word  was,  as  it  has  ever 
been,  "  Down  with  the  Jesuits."  On  the  11th  of  March, 
1820,  this  cry  resounded  terrifically  around  the  College  of 
St.  Isidore,  at  Madrid.  Father  Zuniga,  the  Provincial, 
was  then  lying  in  his  agony.  The  dying  religious,  who 
had  long  foreseen  fresh  misfortunes  and  afilictions  for  his 
Order  and  for  his  country,  heard,  at  that  last  moment,  the 
diabolical  yells  of  the  enemies  of  God  and  of  His  Church. 
The  serenity  of  his  pure  soul  was  not  disturbed.  He  ad- 
dressed a  few  parting  words  of  counsel  to  the  valiant  sol- 
diers whom  he  was  about  to  leave  without  a  leader ;  he 
breathed  forth  a  last  and  heart-felt  prayer  to  heaven  for  his 
country,  for  his  prince,  for  his  dear  society,  and  calmly 
expired. 

Ferdinand  VII  endeavored  to  temporize,  but  the  dema- 
gogues continued  their  clamors,  and  he  was  forced  to  yield. 
On  the  14th  of  August,  the  Cortes  pronounced  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  a  pension  of  three  hundred 
and  ninety-five  francs  being  accorded  to  those  who  had 
been  elevated  to  the  priesthood.  They  were,  however, 
permitted  to  remain  in  the  kingdom  as  secular  priests. 
In  the  year  following,  1821,  the  city  of  Tortosa  was  vis- 
ited by  the  plague.  Ferdinand  Queralt,  a  young  scho- 
lastic of  the  society,  and  two  coadjutors,  Francis  Jordan 
and  Ramon  Euiz,  gave  themselves  up  to  the  care  of  the 
sufferers,  and  took  charge  of  the  orphans  who  were  con- 
fided to  them  by  the  magistrates.  Their  charity,  zeal, 
and  self-denial  were  the  theme  of  general  admiration. 
But  this  public  expression  of  gratitude  gave  offense  to  the 
party  which  had  suppressed  the  society  in  the  states  of 
the  most  Catholic  King,  and  the  three  Jesuits  were  ar- 
rested. They  were  thrown  into  prison,  in  order  the  more 
effectually  to  remove  them  from  the  affection  and  respect 
■jyhich  their  virtues  awoke  in  the  bosoms  of  all  who  knew 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   LOUIS   FORTIS.  235 

them.  The  people  became  indignant,  and  insisted  on 
tlieir  release.     They  were  banished. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1822,  twenty-three  priests, 
or  religious,  who  were  being  conducted  prisoners  to  Bar- 
celona, in  the  name  of  liberty,  and  under  the  pretext  of 
their  being  opposed  to  the  constitution,  failed  to  reach 
their  destination.  When  two  leagues  from  Manresa,  they 
v/ere  assassinated,  in  the  name  of  fraternity.  Among 
these  victims  was  a  Jesuit,  Father  Juan  Uritjjoitia. 

In  1817,  Spain  had  seen  several  of  its  colonies  throw- 
ing off  the  yoke  of  its  dominion,  proclaiming  their  inde- 
pendence, and,  among  other  subjects  of  complaint,  cast- 
ing at  the  mother  country  this  reproach,  which  is  an  honor 
to  the  Order  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola : 

"You  have  arbitrarily  deprived  us  of  the  Jesuits,  to  whom  we 
owe  our  civilization,  our  social  position,  our  education,  our  all, 
and  without  whom  we  can  do  nothing." 

This  regret  of  fifty  years'  standing,  transmitted  from  one 
generation  to  another,  in  'all  its  bitterness  and  poignancy, 
was  a  great  lesson  for  Spain,  if  she  had  only  known  how  to 
profit  by  it.  The  Jesuits,  who  had  continued  in  Mexico 
after  the  suppression  of  the  society,  had  immediately 
joined  their  brethren,  for  the  purpose  of  reorganization, 
under  the  Bull  for  their  reestablishment.  They  possessed 
one  college  and  a  novitiate,  in  a  flourishing  condition, 
when,  on  the  21st  of  January,  1821,  the  decree  for  the 
demolition  of  the  Order  in  the  Spanish  States  was  pro- 
raulsrated  in  Mexico.  The  sorrow  which  this  measure 
occasioned,  must  have  been  sufiicient  proof  of  its  unpopu- 
larity. But,  liberty  above  all  things!  The  tears  and  pro- 
testations of  the  Mexicans  were  of  no  avail  to  move  the 
paternal  hearts  of  the  constitutionalists. "  The  Fathers 
dispersed,  and  exercised  the  functions  of  their  holy  min- 
istry while  awaiting  happier  times. 


236  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

The  Jesuits  were  an  obstruction   to  the  revolutionists, 
who  every-where  excited  the  worst  passions  against  them. 
In  France,  where  every  Christian  was  designated  a  Jes- 
uit, or  a  Sodalist^  the  hatred  against  the  Society  seemed 
to  increase,  day  by  day,  through  the  calumnies  of  the  Lib- 
eral   press.      Christian    souls    sighed    and    prayed.      The 
bishops  desired  Jesuits  to  conduct  their  seminaries  ;  fam- 
ilies   asked    for  colleges,  where    their   children   could  be 
shielded   from  the  Voltairian   ideas  which   preponderated 
in  the    teachings   of   the  University.       Letters   were   ad- 
dressed to  the  Provincial  from  all  c^uarters,  asking  that 
colleges  might  be  founded,  or  offering  land  for  that  pur- 
pose ;    for  the  little   seminaries   did    not   afford   sufficient 
accommodation,  and  many  applicants  had    to  be   refused 
admission.     The  University  became  alarmed,  and  the  op- 
ponents of  the  Society  of  Jesus  renewed  their  onslaughts 
and  calumnies.     The  Jesuits  had  a  college  near  Amiens, 
to  which  the  children  of  the  noble  and  most  illustrious 
families  were  sent.     That  sufficed  to  induce  the  enemies 
of  the  society  to  cast   ridicule  and  odium  upon  the  Col- 
lege of  St.  Acheul,  hoping,  by  this  means,  to  disgust  both 
pupil  and  parent.      There  was,  also,  a  novitiate  at  Mont- 
rouge,  near  Paris,  where  aspirants  for  admission  were  very 
numerous.     The  enemies  of  the   society  were  pleased  to 
designate  this  house  of  meditation  and  prayer  as  the  hot- 
bed  of  perjury  and  assassination.      And  all  these  things 
were  printed  and  published  daily,  under  the  eyes  of  the 
government,    in    the    most    Christian    kingdom,    in    that 
France  which  still  boasts  the  title  of  Eldest  Daughter  of 
the  Church. 

On  the  3d  of  May,  1823,  several  men,  seated  around  a 
table,  at  a  tavern  outside  the  Barriere  de  I'Enfer,  were 
earnestly  discussing  the  war  in  Spain,  which  the  Liberal 
press  maintained  had  been  brought  about  by  the  Jesuits. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATTIER  LOUIS  FORTIS.  237 

AlU  at  once,  one  of  the  party  exclaimed,  "  There  gees 
one  of  those  shaven-pated  Jesuits!  I'll  soon  settle 
him  !  " 

No  sooner  had  he  uttered  these  words  than,  seizing  his 
pruning-hook  from  the  corner  in  which  he  had  placed  it, 
he  made  after  the   Jesuit,  at  whom   he   aimed   a    deadly 
blow.      Father    de    Brosses    fell,    slightly  wounded.      He 
arose,  and,  turning  toward  his  brutal  assailant,  said  that 
he    freely   forgave    him.     The    latter,   not    understanding 
such  language,  levelled  another  blow  at  his  victim.     The 
bystanders    interposed,    to  prevent    further    violence,   and 
Father  de   Brosses,  whose  life   had    thus    been    providen- 
tially saved,  succeeded  in    reaching   the    novitiate.      The 
guilty  man,  returning  to  his  senses,  trembled  at  the  pos- 
sible consequences  of  his  act.     All  that  he  knew  of  the 
Jesuits  was  what  he  had  read  in  his  pot-house  paper,  and, 
according  to  that  oracle,  they  were  malicious  beings,  whose 
mysterious  power  influenced  the  throne  itself.     He  could 
not  divest  himself  of  the  conviction  that  Father  de  Bros- 
ses would  report  him  to  the  authorities,  and  that  he  would 
be  tried  and  condemned.     He  preferred  to  judge  and  con- 
demn himself;  he  had  recourse  to  suicide.      The  next  day 
he  was  found  dead  !      But  a  Jesuit  had  been  outraged  and 
struck  by  one  of  the  people.     For  the  Liberals,  this  was 
a  victory. 

II. 

On  the  20th  of  August,  1823,  Catholicity  lost  a  Holy 
Pontiff" — the  Society  of  Jesus,  a  benefactor,  a  protector,  a 
friend,  and  a  father.  Pius  VII  had  departed  this  life.  On 
the  28th  of  September,  the  conclave  elected,  as  his  suc- 
cessor. Cardinal  della  Genga,  who  was  not.  very  favorably 
disposed  toward  the  society.  He  took  the  name  of  Leo 
XII  Father  de  Rozaven,  Assistant  of  France,  wrote  to 
Father  de  Billy,  concerning  this  election  : 


57  * 


238  HISTORY    or    the    society    of    JESUS. 

■ 

"We  had  reason  to  fear  that  he  (Leo  XII)  would  not  be  very 
well  affected  toward  us.  But  God  disposes  of  the  hearts  of  Kings, 
and  especially  does  He  rule  those  of  Popes.  When  they  assume 
this  dignity,  they  ai'e  animated  with  a  new  spirit.  Our  Father- 
General  has  not  yet  had  the  opportunity  of  being  presented  to  His 
Holiness;  but  Ave  know,  for  certain,  that  he  is  favorable  to  us,  and 
that,  erelong,  he  will  manifest  this  good-will  publicly.  One  who 
is  on  intimate  terms  with  him,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  friend  of 
ours,  having  ventured  to  commend  the  society  to  him,  he  replied: 
'  You,  then,  take  an  interest  in  the  society  ?  Well,  you  must  know 
that  I  am  more  deeply  interested  in  it  than  you  are.'  I  know  for 
certain  much  more,  which  I  would  willingly  impart  to  you,  but 
which  I  dare  not  commit  to  paper.  In  short,  the  society  has  much 
to  hope  for  from  our  new  Pope,  whom  may  it  please  God  to  spare 
for  many  years.  But  he  is  prejudiced  against  certain  persons. 
Whether  my  poor  self,  who  am  so  little  known  to  him,  be  of  the 
number  of  those  who  are  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  displeasing  to 
him,  is  more  than  I  can  say.  I  am  assured  that  such  is  not  the 
case,  but  I  have  some  reason  to  think  otherwise.  However  this 
may  be,  provided  he  benefits  the  society,  I  am  quite  willing  to  be 
cast  into  the  sea.  If  he  persuades  the  Father-General  that  the 
atmosphere  of  Rome  is  unsuited  for  me,  I  am  willing  to  breathe 
that  of  France,  or  even  that  which  Father  Bougeant  breathed  in 
his  exile.  Let  them  appoint  me  professor  of  logic  and  meta- 
physics, pro  nosiris,  and  I  shall  have  attained  the  height  of  my  am- 
bition. I  feel  that  it  would  be  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  teach 
youth  the  art  of  reasoning  well,  a  thing  which  I  find  daily  becom- 
ing more  rare." 

Father  de  Rozaven  was  not  cast  into  the  sea,  nor  was 
he  ordered  change  of  climate,^  and  the  new  head  of  the 
Church,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  verified  the  truth  of 
that  sayin<r,  the  hearts  of  Popes  are  essentiaUij  in  the  hands 
of  God.  There  was  no  lonfrer  a  Cardinal  della  Gen2;a;' 
there  was  only  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  the  Vicar  of  Jesus 
Christ  upon  earth.  A  few  months  after  his  election,  he 
manifested  his  good-will  for  the  Society  of  Jesus  by  restor- 
ing to  it  the  Roman  Collage  founded  by  St.  Ignatius,  and 
in  the  brief  by  which  he  ratified  this  act  of  justice,  he  said  : 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  2?j0 

"It  is  truly  a-  matter  worthy  to  be  admired,  and  rcmcml)crcd  to 
th<j  glory  of  this  establishment,  that  this  garden,  so  long  closed, 
has,  without  intermission,  down  to  our  own  day,  produced  fruits 
of  salvation  and  honor;  that  is  to  say,  that  this  sanctuary  has  pro- 
duced to  the  Church  and  the  state  so  great  a  number  of  eminent 
men,  remarkable  for  their  pure  morals,  great  dignity,  and  pro- 
found erudition. 

This  college,  which  owes  its  first  lustre  and  renown  to  St.  Igna- 
tius of  Loyola,  founder  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  was  confided  by 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  the  care  of  the  regular  clergy  of  the 
same  Institute,  who  successfully  governed  it  during  the  existence 
-of  their  Order,  as  did,  after  them,  the  secular  priests  who  were 
charged  with  its  direction.  But,  as  Pius  VII,  our  predecessor,  by 
Letters-apostolic,  dated  the  7th  of  the  Ides  of  August,  1814,  has 
reestablished  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  its  primitive  condition,  for 
this  chief  end,  that  it  should  train  youth  in  virtue  and  learning, 
we,  who  were  fully  acquainted  with  the  intention  of  that  same 
Pontiff  to  recall  the  Society  of  Jesus  to  the  Roman  College,  have 
thought  it  our  duty  to  take  the  subject  into  immediate  considera- 
tion, and  to  consult  the  congregation  of  our  venerable  brothers, 
the  Cardinals  of  the  holy  Church,  to  whom  we  have  confided  the 
important  task  of  establishing,  in  all  our  states,  the  best  and  most 
advantageous  system  of  education — the  only  means  of  regenerat- 
ing society,  after  times  which  have  been  so  disastrous  and  fatal  to 
the  Church.  This  is  why,  with  a  full  knowledge,  and  in  virtue  of 
our  Apostolical  authority,  we  grant,  assign,  and  make  over  in  per- 
petuity, by  these  letters,  to  our  beloved  sons,  the  regular  clergy  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  and,  in  their  names,  to  our  most  beloved  son, 
Louis  Fortis,  General  of  the  said  society,  the  Roman  College,  the 
Church  of  St.  Ignatius,  and  the  Oratory,  which  is  named  after  Fa- 
ther Caravita,  the  Museums,  the  Library,  the  Observatory,  with  all 
that  appertains  thereto,  and  all  the  other  appurtenances,  on  con- 
dition that  they  establish  in  that  college,  according  to  the  former 
system  in  force  in  the  year  1773,  public  schools,  to  which  we  order 
to  be  added  chairs  of  sacred  eloquence,  physics,  and  chemistry." 

Leo  XII  saw  the  utility  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  in  the 
disastrous  effects  resulting  from  its  suppression.  It  had 
not  educated  the  generations  that  had  just  subverted  the 
thrones  in  all  the  Catholic   countries  from  which  it  had 


240  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

been  banished.  The  spirit  of  independence,  impiety,  and 
infidelity  which  had  profaned  the  temples,  pulled  down 
the  altars,  and  sent  priests  and  kings  to  the  scaffold,  was 
the  same  which  pursued,  with  a  venomous  hatred,  the 
Order  of  St.  Ignatius,  whose  influence  and  virtue  it  feared. 
In  the  eyes  of  the  revolutionists,  the  Jesuits  were  the  most 
valiant  defenders  of  the  Church — the  stanchest  support- 
ers of  all  legally  constituted  authority.  This  was  suf- 
ficient reason  for  persecuting  them,  and  by  every  means, 
no  matter  how  culpable,  removing  them  to  a  distance. 

The  new  Pope  was  desirous  of  making  amends  to  the 
society,  of  showing  it  constant  favor,  and  protecting  it 
upon  all  occasions.  He  felt  himself  called  upon,  in  jus- 
tice and  gratitude,  to  do  so,  for  it  was  in  the  service  of 
the  Holy  See  that  it  had  suffered  and  labored  unceas- 
ingly, with  so  much  devotedness  and  self-denial.  He 
frequently  visited  the  houses  of  the  Jesuits  in  Rome,  in 
which  he  took  a  lively  interest,  and,  by  his  generosity, 
aided  the  development  of  the  German  College,  at  the  same 
time  ordering  the  students  of  that  institution,  so  dear  to 
the  heart  of  St.  Ignatius,  its  founder,  to  resume  their 
original  dress.  He  placed  his  nephews  under  the  guid- 
ance of  a  Jesuit,  Father  Ricasoli.^  In  1825,  he  founded 
a. boarding  school  for  the  nobles,  which  he  placed  under 
their  direction.  He  rebuilt  and  restored  to  them  the 
ancient  College  of  Spoleto,  his  native  city.  Finally,  he 
desired  to  elevate  to  the  episcopacy  Fathers  Pallaviciui, 
Kohlman,  and  Kenney  ;  but  the  General  so  earnestly  im- 
plored him  to  spare  them,  that  the  Pope  felt  constrained 
to  press  his  desire  no  further  in  opposition  to  such  true 
humility.  Father  Benedict  Fenwick  was  less  fortunate. 
"Without  the  slightest  intimation,  he  received  his  nomina- 


*The  eldest  of  his  pupils   subsequently  became  Cardiual,   and 
Bishop  of  Ferrara. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  241 

tion  to  the  See  of  Boston,  together  with  the  Pontifical 
Bulls,  and  an  order  from  the  Holy  Father  compelling  him 
to  accept  the  burden  thus  imposed  upon  him. 

The  Jesuits  had  every-where  resumed  their  apostolical 
labors  with  extraordinary  activity.  In  the  month  of  Octo- 
ber, 1823,  the  Emperor  of  Austria  paid  a  visit  to  their 
College  of  Tarnopol,  and,  delighted  with  all  he  saw,  con- 
gratulated and  encouraged  the  Fathers.  The  imperial 
visit  soon  became  publicly  known,  and  had  the  effect  of 
augmenting  the  popularity  of  this  already  favorite  estab- 
lishment. The  Fathers  likewise  devoted  themselves  to  the 
holy  duties  of  the  ministry,  and  obtained,  by  their  preach- 
ing, such  abundant  fruits,  that  they  were  obliged  to  extend 
their  labors  into  Hungary,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  bishops, 
for  the  purpose  of  preaching  the  Gospel  in  the  country 
places.  Intemperance  prevailed  very  generally  among  the 
peasantry,.  The  Jesuits  succeeded  in  subduing  this  bru- 
talizing vice.  The  bishops,  being  unwilling  to  part  with 
them,  established  them  in  the  ancient  abbey  of  the  Bene- 
dictines, at  Tyniec.  They  were  still  in  Styria  and  in  the 
kingdom  of  Saxony,  where  they  revivified  the  faith,  and 
reenkindled  piety,  as  they  likewise  did  in  Rhenish  Prussia. 

Duke  Ferdinand  of  Anhalt-Kcethen  had  visited  France, 
in  1825,  in  company  with  the  Princess  Julia  of  Prussia, 
his  wife,  who  was  sister  to  the  King  of  Prussia.  The 
Count  Ingenheim,  the  Duke's  brother,  was  also  of  the 
party.  Ferdinand,  struck  with  the  virtue  and  piety  of 
a  noble  French  family,  with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of 
friendship,  requested  to  be  introduced  to  a  priest,  whom 
he  might  consult  with  a  view  to  receiving  instruction,  and 
having  his  doubts  removed.  Father  Bonsin,  selected  for 
this  purpose,  soon  brought  light  and  peace  to  his  soul. 

When  the  Duke  of  Anhalt  declared  to  his  wife  his  de- 
termination of  becoming  a  Catholic,  the  Princess  was  so 
overjoyed  that  she  swooned  with  pleasure.     She,  likewise, 


24:2  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

impelled  by  Divine  Grace,  had  entertained  the  same  de- 
sire, but  dared  not  declare  it.  Father  llonsin  gave  them 
instructions,  and  engaged  each  to  enter  upon  a  separate 
retreat,  the  Princess  in  the  Convent  des  Oisemtx,  and  the 
Prince  in  the  house  of  his  friends,  and,  on  the  24th  of 
October,  1825,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  Monseigneur  de 
Quelen,  received  their  abjuration,  as  also  that  of  Count 
Ingenheim,  in  his  chapel  at  Conflans.  A  few  days  after, 
Father  llonsin  himself  received  the  abjuration  of  Mon- 
sieur de  Haza  Radlitz,  Chamberlain  of  the  Duke  of  An- 
halt,  in  the  chapel  of  the  Convent  des  Oiseaux. 

On  his  return  to  Koethen,  Ferdinand  informed  his  sub- 
jects of  the  grace  he  had  had  the  happiness  of  receiving, 
and,  notwithstanding  the  Lutheran  clamors  and  the  anger 
of  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  Duke  obtained  from  the  Pope 
permission  to  have  a  Jesuit  near  him.  At  his  request, 
Father  Beckx  went  to  Koethen,  where  he  became  the  sup- 
port and  consolation  of  all  the  Catholics. 

In  Switzerland  there  were  not  sufficient  Fathers  to  meet 
the  demands  upon  them.  They  hud  to  increase  their 
number,  in  order  to  preach  the  Gospel  throughout  the 
country,  and  reap  the  fruit  of  their  preaching.  In  1824, 
some  wealthy  individuals  erected  the  College  of  Friburg, 
which  soon  obtained  a  European  celebrity. 

Holland  was  less  favorable  to  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
William  II,  a  Protestant,  as  we  have  seen,  had  already 
caused  his  intolerance  to  be  felt.  He  had  given  shelter 
to  the  banished  politicians  of  France,  and  the  latter  showed 
their  gratitude  by  propagating  their  revolutionar}'^  princi- 
ples, and  by  putting  in  circulation  their  stock  of  calum- 
nies against  the  Jesuits,  Montrouge,  the  Sodalists — all 
that  in  any  way  related  to  the  Society  of  Jesus.  One  day, 
the  Ministers  of  King  William  communicated  to  him  a 
great  and  astounding  piece  of  information.  It  was  that 
the  Jesuits  ruled  in  France.     The  King  was  only  a  tool  in 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  243 

tlieir  hands;  the  Ministers  obeyed  their  orders,  and  notli- 
ing  was  done  without  their  approval.  William  became 
alarmed,  and  felt  persuaded  that  it  would  not  be  long  ere 
they  would  usurp,  in  like  manner,  the  government  of  his 
kingdom.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  Jesuits  to  receive 
into  their  house  those  priests  and  laymen  who  desired 
to  retire,  and  fortify  themselves  by  a  retreat  of  some 
days.  In  this  proceeding  the  Ministers  could  see  noth- 
ing but  danger  to  the  throne.  The  spiritual  exercises 
were,  in  their  opinion,  the  most  influential  means  which 
the  Jesuits  possessed;  hence  they  ought  to  be  interdicted 
by  the  King.  A  free  and  powerful  government  could  no 
longer  tolerate  such  an  abuse!  William  yielded  to  the 
counsels  of  his  Ministers.  He  prohibited  the  Fathers 
from  admitting  into  their  hou^e  those  who  sought  to 
spend  part  of  their  time  in  prayer  and  peaceful  medita- 
tion. It  was  in  the  year  1824,  that  the  Dutch  Govern- 
ment thus  gave  proof  of  its  toleration.  In  a  few  months 
after,  those  colleges  having  Jesuit  professors,  and  the 
seminaries  conducted  by  members  of  the  society,  were 
closed,  in  virtue  of  orders  from  the  King,  and  in  the 
name  of  constitutional  liberty.  The  Christian  Brothers, 
who  were  charged  with  being  Jesuits  in  disguise,  were 
also  expelled.  Thus,  the  Catholics  were  without  resources 
for  the  education  of  their  children.  The  affluent  could, 
at  the  sacrifice  of  separation,  remedy  this  moral  evil; 
but  the  poor  were  under  the  necessity  of  either  allowing 
their  children  to  remain  in  ignorance,  or  sending  them 
to  Protestant  schools,  these  alone  being  sanctioned  by 
the  government.  The  Catholics  were  sufficiently  numer- 
ous in  the  states  of  King  William  not  to  despair  for 
the  future.  Belgium  was  already  preparing  to  free  her- 
self from  his  intolerant  rule  ;  for  it  was  well  known  that 
the  only  motive  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  was 
the    King's    aversion    to    Catholicity,    and    not    the    fear 


244  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

of  a  power  in  the  existence  of  wliieli  lie  did  not  be- 
lieve, notwithstanding  the  representations  of  the  Liberal 
press. 

III. 

The  newspapers  were  never  at  a  loss  for  an  argument 
against  the  Jesuits,  and  each  day- they  circulated  the  most 
absurd  and  ridiculous  reports;  and  the  more  absurd  their 
assertions,  the  more  acceptable  were  they.  The  Constitu- 
tlonnel  surpassed  all  its  cotemporaries,  and  the  readers  of 
that  journal  were  still  in  advance  of  it. 

Montrouge  was  represented  as  an  arsenal,  strong  enough 
to  compete  with  the  most  impregnable  fortress.  There 
the  novices  regularly  practised  the  manual  in  the  immense 
vaults  which  had  been  cgnstructed  under  the  direction  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  which,  passing  under  the  bed  of  the  river 
Seine,  led  direct  to  the  Palace  of  the  Tuilleries.  In  these 
subterranean  retreats  were  enacted  the  most  extraordinary 
scenes,  worthy  the  serious  attention  of  France,  of  Europe, 
and  even  of  the  whole  world.  There  were  secreted  the 
gold  and  silver,  the  entire  wealth  of  the  state  ;  there  were 
summoned,  each  one  to  be  judged  according  to  his  works, 
the  most  exalted  functionaries  of  the  government;  there 
was  mooted  and  discussed  every  subject  of  importance, 
political,  legal,  or  financial,  that  was  to  be  presented  to  the 
Chambers,  In  that  same  place  were  designated  those  mem- 
bers of  the  clergy  worthy  of  being  raised  to  the  episcopacy  ; 
there,  in  fine,  was  the  seat  of  government  de  facto.  This 
was  the  programme  of  these  terrific  Jesuits.  And,  strange 
to  relate,  in  these  same  vaults  was  deposited  sufiicient 
powder  to  supply  the  entire  French  army  in  time  of  war; 
and  it  was  in  that  same  place  that  the  novices  were  drilled 
in  the  use  of  the  musket  and  even  in  artillery  practice, 
and  that,  every  night,  at  the  risk  of  blowing  up  Paris,  and 
sending  it  flying  to  St.  Petersburg. 


GENERALSHIP    OP    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  245 

The  public  credulity  was  such  as  not  only  to  entertaia 
all  these  absurdities,  but  to  repeat  them  with  unblushing 
assurance.  The  Constltut'ionnel  knew  its  subscribers ;  it 
was  aware  that  the  greater  the  absurdity  put  forth,  the 
more  readily  would  it  be  believed.  It  was  well  known 
that  the  Jesuits  had  not  yet  been  able  to  obtain  from  the 
government  a  legal  sanction,  which  fact  of  itself  was,  or 
ought  to  have  been,  sufficient  to  prove  that  their  political 
influence  was  not,  after  all,  so  very  great;  but  things  are 
not  always  regarded  in  a  logical  light.  The  public  mind 
became  excited  to  such  a  degree  by  the  reading  of  these 
far-fetched  fables,  that  Father  John  Baptist  Gury,  Superior 
of  the  novitiate,  one  day  received  a  formal  challenge.  The 
demagogue  who  was  so  far  demented  as  to  be  guilty  of 
this  act  of  folly,  proposed  either  the  pistol  or  the  sword, 
courteously  leaving  him  the  choice  of  weapons,  taking 
care,  however,  to  insist  on  a  duel  d  mort.  Other  letters 
were  addressed  to  him,  full  of  insults  and  threats  of  savage 
fury. 

Thus,  Montrouge  acquired  great  celebrity.  Visitors  ar- 
riving in  Paris  had  this  place  pointed  out  to  them  among 
the  curiosities  worthy  of  being  visited,  and  were  astounded 
at  the  facility  with  which  they  were  allowed  to  inspect  that 
mysterious  stronghold  ;  but  their  surprise  increased  when 
they  found  the  calm  serenity  that  possessed  its  inmates, 
indicative  of  that  peace  and  quietude  which  reigned  within 
each  breast.  It  was,  indeed,  difficult  for  them  to  recon- 
cile what  they  had  witnessed  with  the  reports  they  had 
heard,  and  what  they  daily  read,  and  they  wondered  how 
the  Parisians  could  allow  themselves  to  be  thus  duped 
by  a  few  scribblers.  Alas!  at  Paris,  less  than  elsewhere, 
do  men  take  the  trouble  of  weighing  what  they  say,  or 
what  they  hear,  or  what  is  seriously  affirmed  in  their 
favorite  journal. 

In  1826,  there  appeared  a  work  which  far  surpassed  all 

58  ■ 


246  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

that  had  hitherto  been  published  against  the  Jesuits  in  gen- 
eral, and  Montrouge  in  particular.  The  author,  Martial 
Marcet  de  la  Roche  Arnaud,  had  been  a  novice  in  that  dark 
retreat,  and  he  could  speak  of  it  from  personal  knowledge. 
Who,  then,  could  doubt  what  he  said?  His  book.  The 
Modern  Jesuits,  was  bought  up,  and  its  contents  devoured 
with  that  eagerness  which  is  usually  excited  by  a  work  of 
scandal.  The  deserter  had  given  himself  but  little  uneasi- 
ness about  being  consistent  in  his  calumnies.  Why  should 
he  ? — the  public  were  not  over  nice  upon  this  point.  In 
this  publicatiofl,  Father  Gury  was  represented  as  one  of 
the  most  ferocious  tyrants,  and  the  novices  as  slaves  who 
trembled  before  him ;  but  the  suggestion  never  occurred  to 
any  one  why  these  young  men  submitted  to  such  tyranny, 
since  it  was  well  known  that  they  could,  at  anytime,  retire 
from  it.  By  the  very  fact  that  the  author  himself  had 
voluntarily  left  it,  he  proved  that  those  who  remained,  did 
so  of  their  own  accords  After  giving  a  most  frightful  pic- 
ture of  what  he  asserted  were  the  teachings  of  Father 
Gury,  he  exclaimed: 

"Shall  I  give  you  some  idea  of  the  influence  exercised  by  Father 
Gury  over  these  poor  novices  ?  Read  the  history  of  the  '  Old  Man 
of  the  Mountain,'  and  perhaps  you  will  have  to  acknowledge,  after 
all,  that  the  'Old  Man  of  the  Mountain'  possessed  some  feeling. 
At  the  very  sight  of  the  tyrant  of  Montrouge,  every  one  trembles  ; 
when  he  speaks,  every  one  is  silent.  His  prophetic  mien,  his 
threatening  aspect,  his  mysterious  words,  his  peremptory  and  im- 
perious tone  so  act  upon  his  novices,  that  they  would  unhesitatingly 
attempt  to  lay  the  world  in  ashes,  if  so  they  might  hope  to  gain 

the  merit  of  entire  obedience." 

• 

Poor  novices !  They  were  indeed  to  be  pitied !  The 
Jesuits  allowed  the  storm  to  rage  around  them,  while  the 
government,  knowing  its  weakness,  permitted  them  to  be 
insulted  and  outraged.  It  did  not  perceive  that  the  war 
against  the  Jesuits  was  only  the  prelude  of  a  war  against 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  247 

the  throne.  They  had  had  experience  of  this  before;  but 
it  is  rare  tliat  we  find  those  who  know  liow  to  profit  by  the 
lessons  of  experience.  The  Legitimist  or  religious  press 
in  vain  pointed  to  the  melancholy  past,  which  ought  to 
have  been  sufficient  warning  for  the  future.  The  Minis- 
ters were  blinded,  and  thought  they  served  the  King  when 
they  induced  him  to  temporize  with  the  most  dangerous 
political  -parties.  Thus,  the  Jesuits  Ibund  themselves  sac- 
rificed to  the  impiety  of  the  Liberals;  but,  nevertheless, 
they  labored  as  zealously  as  ever  for  the  glory  of  God. 
They  had  given  missions  at  Fort  Yincennes,  at  the  hos- 
pital, and  at  the  prisons  of  Bicetre.-^  They  were  to  be 
found  wherever  a  work  of  charity  was  to  be  done,  or  a 
soul  to  be  saved.  They  devoted  their  time  to  teaching, 
and  to  scientific  or  literary  pursuits.  During  this  storm 
so  menacing  to  them,  they  were  what  they  had  ever  been 
from  their  very  first  formation. 

Day  by  day,  the  horizon  darkened  around  the  throne  of 
Charles  X.  The  Liberals  flattered  him,  at  the  same  time 
representing  the  Jesuits  and  the  Socialists  as  the  most 
dangerous  of  conspirators.  The  King,  not  yielding  to 
their  insinuations  with  sufficient  promptitude,  the  revolu- 
tionary party  endeavored  to  spread  the  report  that  he  had 
allied  himself  to  the  society;  Charles  X  was  neither  more 
nor  less  than  a  Jesuit ;  the  Father-General  exercised  abso- 
lute  authority  over  him ;  but  France  would  no  longer  tol- 
erate such  a  condition  of  things,  and  would  never  consent 
to  be  governed  by  a  crowned  Jesuit.  The  government,  no 
longer  deluded  as  to  the  intention  of  the  Liberals,  clearly 
perceived  that  the  Jesuits  were  only  the  pass-word  for  the 
opposition  ;  but  that  party  had  so  influenced  the  masses, 
that  it  seemed  to  be  impossible  to  control  it.  Charles  X 
could  no  longer  close  his  eyes  to  the  fate  that  awaited  him. 

*  House  of  Correction  in  Paris. — Tk. 


248  HISTORY  or  the  society  or  jesus. 

Cardinal  Lambruschini,  tlie  Pope's  Nuncio,  advised  him 
to  show  his  authority;  to  present  to  the  Chamber  a  project 
of  law,  authorizins;  the  Jesuits  to  remain  in  his  kingdom 
as  a  religious  corporation,  feeling  assured  that  such  a 
measure  would  silence  his  enemies,  strengthen  the  royal 
authority,  and  fortify  the  government.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Liberals  offered  to  cease  their  opposition  and 
support  the  ruling  power,  if  the  Jesuits  were  sacrificed. 
Charles  X  was  particularly  desirous  of  securing  the  sup- 
port of  this  party,  and  gaining  its  good-will,  lest,  through 
it,  he  should  lose  his  throne.  He,  therefore,  appointed  a 
commission  to  investigate  the  condition  of  the  seminaries 
conducted  by  the  Jesuits.  These  religious  had  only  eight 
in  France,  but  they  were  a  source  of  envy  to  the  Uni- 
versity. 

The  result  of  this  investigation  was  an  ordinance  to  the 
effect  that,  from  the  1st  of  October,  1828,  the  schools  di- 
rected by  the  Jesuits  should  be  subject  to  the  University; 
that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  teach  unless  he  declared, 
in  writino;,  that  he  did  not  belonsi;  to  any  religious  congre- 
gation  not  sanctioned  by  the  government;  that  the  num- 
ber of  ecclesiastical  schools  in  each  diocese  should  be 
limited,  as  also  the  number  of  pupils,  and  no  day-scholars 
be  admitted.  In  fine,  twelve  hundred  thousand  francs  were 
curtailed  from  the  sum  hitherto  allowed  for  the  support 
of  the  seminaries. 

The  Minister  of  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  Monseigneur 
Fraissinous,  Bishop  of  Hermopolis,  declared  that  he  could 
not  conscientiously  countersign  such  an  ordinance,  and 
tendered  his  resio;nation.  The  King  offered  the  vacant 
portfolio  to  Monseigneur  de  Cheverus,  Archbishop  of 
Bordeaux,  who  declined  the  honor  on  the  same  grounds. 
Charles  X  next  addressed  himself  to  Monseigneur  Feu- 
trier,   Bishop  of   Beauvais.      The  latter  hesitated,  saying 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  219 

that  he  felt  he  would  be  dishonored  in  the  estimation  of 
the  episcopate,  the  clergy,  and  all  sincere  Christians,  who 
were  the  Iriends  of  the  Jesuits;  that  he  could  not  accept 
such  a  position.  The  Count  Portalis,  in  order,  according 
to  his  own  views,  to  conciliate  all  parties,  then  proposed 
that  the  ordinance  should  be  divided,  so  as  to  make  one 
relate  to  the  Jesuits,  which  he  would  take  under  his  own 
responsibility,  the  other  simply  to  affect  the  seminaries, 
and  the  discontinuance  of  a  portion  of  their  allowance,  to 
be  countersigned  by  the  prelate.  The  Ministerial  port- 
folio presented  attractions  to  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  who 
allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  accept  it;  and,  on  the 
the  16tli  of  June,  1828,  the  ordinances  were  published, 
by  which  the  bishops  of  France  were  placed  under  the 
control  of  the  University,  henceforth  the  guardian  of  ec- 
clesiastical education,  and  by  which  youths  were  deprived 
of  that  Christian  training  hitherto  received  at  the  hands 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of  the  teach- 
ings of  the  University. 

These  ordinances  brought  grief  and  dismay  into  every 
Christian  heart.  In  vain  did  the  bishops  protest :  their 
remonstrances  were  no  longer  listened  to ;  their  petition  to 
the  Pope  was  intercepted.  The  revolutionary  spirit  tri- 
umphed. The  Jesuits  quitted  the  seminaries  of  which 
they  had  control,  without  a  murmur  or  complaint,  always 
evincinir  the  same  meekness,  the  same  submission,  the 
same  self-denial.  Their  pupils  mourned  their  loss;  Chris- 
tian families  called  for  them;  the  general  councils  of 
many  departments  urged  their  return.  All  was  in  vain. 
The  31inister  had  seen  only  one  means  to  maintain  him- 
self in  power.  He  had  made  use  of  it,  and  could  not  now 
forego  it  by  annulling  his  late  acts.  The  Liberals  had  said 
to  him:  "Sacrifice  the  Jesuits  and  Sodalists,  and  we  will 
Eupport  you  in  the  Chamber.     If  you  refuse,  you  muut 


58- 


250  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

fall."  And  the  Jesuits  and  the  Sodah'sfs — that  is  to  say, 
the  interests  of  religion — had  been  sacrificed.  Providence 
permitted  all  this  ;   erelong,  it  would  declare  itself. 

The  revolution,  under  the  name  of  Liberalism,  had 
given  its  pass-word  to  the  press  of  every  country.  The 
secret  societies,  in  their  hatred  for  all  authority,  desired 
the  subversion  of  the  thrones,  the  destruction  of  the  Pa- 
pacy, and  the  annihilation  of  the  Church.  It  was  carry- 
ing out,  on  a  grand  scale,  all  the  philosophical  principles 
which  had  undermined  society  since  the  middle  of  the 
preceding  century,  and  which  had  already  worked  such 
material  injury  for  the  Church,  and  brought  about  so 
many  convulsions  in  the  European  states.  But  they 
could  not,  with  impunity,  cry,  "Down  with  the  Church!" 
"Down  with  thrones!"  and  so  they  confined  themselves 
to  shouting,  "  Down  with  the  Jesuits  !  "  The  Jesuits,  once 
defeated  by  the  influence  of  the  University  education, 
they  had  all  before  them.  It  was  always  the  same  calcu- 
lation. 

The  King  of  Piedmont,  Victor  Emmanuel,  felt  him- 
self too  weak  to  resist  this  continuous  struggle.  He  ab- 
dicated in  favor  of  his  brother,  Charles  Felix,  and  the 
first  act  of  the  new  monarch  was  in  favor  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  The  University  could  not  conceal  its  jealousy 
of  the  talents  of  Father  Manera,  Professor  of  Literature, 
whose  chair  was  the  general  attraction  for  crowds  of 
young  men,  eager  to  hear  his  eloquent  discourses.  Charles 
Felix  manifested  the  warmest  interest  for  the  celebrated 
school  of  the  Fathers,  and,  finding  that  the  University 
dared  continue  their  calumnies  against  the  society,  he 
gave  an  unmistakable  proof  of  his  confidence  and  esteem 
by  making  choice  of  Father  Grassi  for  his  confessor. 
This  resolute  act  silenced  the  Liberal  press.  The  King 
was  fearless  in  his  public  approval  of  the  Jesuits,  but  of 
this  the  latter  took  no  undue  advantage.     Ou  the  death 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS  251 

of  this  prince,  who,  in  his  hist  moments,  was  assisted  by 
Father  Grassi,  all  unanimously  lauded  the  prudence  and 
disinterestedness  of  the  Jesuit,  who  had  possessed  the  es- 
teem and  confidence  of  the  deceased  monarch  ;  even  those 
opposed  to  the  society  accorded  him  this  justice. 

Charles  Albert,  in  thanking  Father  Grassi  for  the  last 
attentions  paid  to  the  deceased  King,  said  : 

''  In  the  death  of  the  King,  the  society  has  lost  a  pro- 
tector and  a  father.  It  will  find  in  me  as  much  esteem 
and  love." 

It  was  not  long  before  he  realized  this  promise  by  es- 
tablishing: a  novitiate  at  Cacliari,  and  several  colleo-es  in 
various  cities  in  Piedmont.  The  revolutionary  press 
found  itself  again  constrained  to  be  silent.  But  the  pub- 
lic mind  was  secretly  agitated,  and  ftir-seeing  men  discov- 
ered a  storm  looming  in  the  future. 

In  Spain,  the  Jesuits,  after  three  years  of  banishment, 
were  again  fully  reinstated,  at  the  request  of  the  bishops 
and  the  urgent  demands  of  the  heads  of  families.  They 
had  been  authorized  by  the  government  to  respond  to 
these  entreaties,  and  once  more  they  were  in  a  position  to 
use  all  the  labors  of  their  ministry,  with  the  same  success 
with  which  they  were  ever  crowned.  But  the  Freemasons 
had  increased  the  number  of  their  lodges;  the'  press  be- 
came daily  more  hostile  to  religion  and  constituted  au- 
thority. Here,  also,  another  dreadful  blow  was  being- 
prepared. 

In  the  United  States,  the  diiferent  establishments  of 
the  society  v,ere  developing  themselves,  and  every  thing 
was  satisfactory.  Whole  families  renounced  Protestant- 
ism through  the  ministry  of  the  Jesuits.  The  most  re- 
markable conversion  was  in  the  person  of  the  Pastor 
Barber,  Rector  of  the  College  of  Connecticut.  Having, 
together  with  the  whole  of  his  family,  been  received  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Church,  he,  at  his  own  earnest  solicita- 


252  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OE    JESUS. 

tion,  was  admitted  into  the  novitiate  of  the  society.  His 
wife  became  a  nun  of  the  Visitation,  and,  later,  his  son 
became  a  Jesuit. 

Of  late,  the  foreign  missions  had  not  been  so  prosper- 
ous as  in  former  times,   and    the  apostles    of  the  society 
sighed  for  the  moment  when  they  might  be  permitted   to 
resume,  in  those  distant  countries,  the  work   commenced 
by  their    predecessors.     In    1823,  the    tribe    of  Ottawas, 
who  hud    long   before  been  freed,  through  the  charity  of 
the  missionaries,  learned  that  they  had  returned  to  Amer- 
ica, and  that  already  several  cities  of  the  Union  had  the 
happiness    of  possessing    them.     The    Ottawas   were   not 
ijirnorant  of  how  much  their  forefathers  owed  to  the  Black- 
7-obes,  who  had  taught  them  to  pray,  and  had  spoken   to 
them  of  the  Great  Spirit.     A  few  of   the  oldest  among 
them    remembered    having    seen    them,   and   could   never 
speak  of   their    tender   charity  without   being   moved    to 
tears  of  gratitude  and  regret.     These  innocent,  good  old 
men,  by  prayer,  kept  alive  the  faith  in  the  tribe.      They 
taught  the  generations  that  came  after  them  to  persevere 
in  the  practice  of  Christianity,  and  not  a  day  passed  with- 
out the  Black-robes  being  named  with  heart-felt  gratitude. 
Full  of  these  precious  recollections,   the  Ottawas  assem- 
bled  in    council,  and    addressed    the    following    touching 
petition  to  the  President  of  the  United  States : 

"Father:  It  is  now  that  we  implore  thee  to  hear  us,  ourselves, 
and  all  the  children  of  this  distant  land.  They  stretch  forth 
their  arms  to  press  thy  hand.  We,  the  chiefs,  the  fathers  of  fam- 
ilies, and  other  Ottawas,  residing  at  the  V  Arbre  Crochu,  earnestly 
beg  and  implore  thee,  our  most  respected  Father,  to  pi'ocure  for  us 
a  Black-robe,  like  those  who  instruct  the  Indians  near  Montreal. 

"  Do  thou,  our  Father,  be  charitable  toward  thy  children;  listen 
to  their  prayer.  We  desire  to  be  instructed  in  the  same  prin- 
ciples of  religion  which  our  ancestors  professed  when  the  mission 
of  St.  Ignatius  existed. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    LOUIS    FORTIS.  253 

"  We  acUlress  ourselves  to  thee,  the  First  and  Principal  Chief 
of  the  United  States.  AVe  beg  of  thee  to  assist  us  in  erecting  a 
house  of  prayer." 

In  the  same  year,  other  chiefs  of  different  tribes  ap- 
plied to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  making  sim- 
ilar requests.  But  the  Jesuits  were  already  occupied  in 
other  missions  on  the  borders  of  the  Missouri  and  adja- 
cent rivers.  The  Bishop  of  New  Orleans,  William  Du- 
bourt^,  had  confided  to  the  Fathers  this  apostleship,  and, 
the  number  of  the  professed  being  still  limited,  they  sent 
some  of  the  novices  who  had  just  arrived  from  Belgium, 
among  whom  was  Peter  de  Smet,  the  celebrated  mission- 
ary, who  has  since,  by  his  extraordinary  and  successful 
labors,  obtained  a  world-wide  name.  These  young  novices 
were  conducted  to  the  field  of  their  labors  by  Fathers 
Van  Quickenborn  and  Temmerman.  Others  proceeded 
to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Kentucky  and  on  the  borders  of 
the  Ohio. 

At  Frederick  City,  Father  McElroy,  who  had  been  only 
a  simple  Brother-coadjutor,  accomplished  marvels  by  his 
preaching.  His  virtues  being  equal  to  his  intelligence, 
Father  Grassi,  his  Superior,  had  him  raised  to  the  dignity 
of  the  priesthood.  Thenceforth,  by  his  zeal  and  elo- 
quence, he  achieved  so  much  good,  and  gained  such  pop- 
ularity, that  he  needed  only  to  point  out  a  good  work  to 
be  done,  to  insure  the  hearty  cooperation  of  both  Catho- 
lics and  Protestants,  eliciting  the  following  remarks  from 
Mr.  Schoeff"er,  a  Protestant,  in  the  columns  of  his  paper, 
1829: 

"  Strange !  while  Catholic  France  banishes  the  Jesuits  from 
its  limits,  and  takes  from  them  the  education  of  the  young,  the 
Protestants  of  Frederick  contribute,  each  one  his  fifty  dollars,  to- 
ward the  erection  of  a  Jesuit  college  in  their  city." 

At   the   commencement  of   the  year  1829,  the  Society 


254  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

of  Jesus  lost  its  General,  Father  Louis  Fortis.  Pope  Leo 
XII  survived  him  only  a  few  days,  expiring  on  the  10th 
of  February.  On  the  31st  of  March,  the  conclave  elected, 
as  his  successor.  Cardinal  Xavier  Castiglione,  who  took 
the  name  of  Pius  VIII. 

Father  Pavani,  Provincial  of  Italy,  whom  Father  Fortia 
had  selected  to  perform  the  functions  of  Vicar-General, 
convened  the  Congregation  for  the  29th  of  June. 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER   JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        255 


6cneni,lsl]ig  of  |atl]er  |ol]ii  lootl^aait, 

TWENTY-SECOND    GENERAL. 
1830  — 1853. 

I. 

On  the  9tli  of  July,  1829,  Father  John  Roothaan  was 
proclaimed  twenty-second  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
He  was  in  his  forty-fourth  year.  In  appearance  cool  and 
collected,  characteristics  of  his  countrymen  generally,  his 
heart  overflowed  with  the  tenderest  charity,  and  burned 
with  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 

Born  a  Catholic,  in  a  Calvinistic  country,  he  had  pur- 
sued his  studies  in  the  midst  of  Protestants,  and  had  been 
educated  by  Protestant  professors,  and  yet,  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  renounce  both  family  and 
country  to  follow  his  vocation,  which  the  atmosphere  in 
which  he  had  lived  had  not  been  able  to  stifle.  The 
only  means  open  to  him  of  entering  the  society  was  to  go 
to  schismatic  Russia,  for  which  he  accordingly  set  out. 
One  of  his  Protestant  professors.  Van  Lennep,  who  filled 
the  chair  of  literature  at  the  Atheneum  of  Amsterdam, 
gave  him  the  following  letter  of  recommendation,  dated 
May  15th,  1804,  to  the  Jesuits  of  Polotsk,  entire  strangers 
to  him,  but  of  whom,  although  a  Protestant,  he  enter- 
tained the  highest  opinion  : 

"I  am  fully  aware  how  greatly  your  society  has  distinguished 
itself,  from  the  very  commencement,  in  all  branches  of  learning 


256  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

and  science.  The  services  it  has  rendered  can  never  be  forgotten. 
I  recommend  to  you,  Reverend  Fathers,  this  j'outh,  whose  worth  I 
have  so  highly  appreciated.  May  he  be  imbued  by  you  with  vir- 
tue and  learning,  and  may  he  one  day  return  to  us,  enriched  with 
those  gifts,  to  acquire  which  he  undertakes  so  long  a  journey." 

Such  was,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  the  merit  of  the 
young  student  who  presented  himself  at  Polotsk.  Trans- 
planted into  the  Society  of  Jesus,  this  merit  was  rapidly 
increased  and  developed.  Father  Roothaan  had  filled, 
with  credit,  various  positions  in  his  Order,  when  he  was 
called  upon  to  govern  it  at  a  time  when  it  was  undergo- 
ing; one  of  its  severest  trials. 

Pius  VIII,  who  was  warmly  attached  to  the  society, 
had  promised  to  avail  himself  of  every  opportunity  to 
favor  it.  On  the  2d  of  December,  of  the  same  year,  1829, 
accompanied  by  Cardinals  Delia  Somaglia  and  Qdescalchi, 
he  visited  the  Church  of  the  GesLi,  and  there  prayed  be- 
fore the  altar  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Indies  and  Ja- 
pan, and,  on  the  same  occasion,  promulgated  the  decree 
of  the  canonization  of  St.  Alphonsus  di  Liguori. 

"  Yet  a  few  days,  and  who  knows  but  that  the  Church 
will  be  subjected  to  still  further  affliction?"  said  Pius 
YIII  to  the  Jesuits,  while,  for  the  first  time,  bestowing 
upon  them  the  Pontifical  benediction.  These  words  were 
only  too  prophetic  ;  for  very  soon  the  exertions  of  the 
secret  societies  excited  revolt  in  several  parts  of  Europe, 
and  threatened  Italy. 

In  France,  the  Liberals,  having  succeeded  in  removing 
the  Jesuits  from  their  path,  prepared  for  an  assault  on 
the  throne  itself,  and  only  awaited  a  pretext  for  having 
recourse  to  arms.  The  King  was  slow  to  act,  but,  at  last, 
issued  decrees  restricting  the  liuorty  of  the  press.  From 
that  time  the  tumult  commenced.  The  people  rose,  and, 
during  three  days,  the  roar  of  cannon  was  to  be  heard  in 
the  streets  of  Paris,  and,  on  the  29th  of  July,  1830.  King 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        257 

Charles  X,  with  ;ill   his  family,  had  to  flee  his  kingdom. 
Thus  was  the  great  end  attained. 

During  these  days  of  civil  war,  amid  general  plunder 
and  disorder,  the  Jesuits  could  not  be  overlooked.  The 
people  had  not  forgotten  all  the  wealth,  treasures,  ammu- 
nition, artillery,  and  the  like,  that  were  stowed  away  in 
the  vaults  of  Montrouge,  according  to  the  articles  of  the 
ConstLtutionnel,  and  the  gossip  of  the  wine-shops.  Now 
the  sovereign  people,  who  w^ere  in  need  of  ammunition, 
and  who  were  not  too  proud  to  acquire  millions,  directed 
their  attention  to  the  novitiate  of  Montrouge,  whither  they 
marched,  their  arms  bared  to  the  elbow,  their  eyes  glaring 
with  fury,  flourishing  iron  bars  or  shouldering  muskets. 
They  forced  open  the  doors,  destroyed  the  furniture,  over- 
threw and  demolished  every  thing  before  them,  all  the 
while  causing  that  pious  retreat  to  resound  with  their 
oaths  and  blasphemy.  But  no  ammunition,  no  money, 
not  even  a  piece  of  artillery  of  the  smallest  calibre,  not 
a  sword,  no  cannon-balls,  no  bullets,  not  a  grain  of 
powder  could  be  found  !  Nor  did  the  vaults  themselves 
reach  so  far  as  the  Barri^re  de  Paris.  Assuredly,  the 
people  had  been  duped,  and  that,  too,  as  they  admitted, 
not  by  the  Jesuits,  but  by  the  public  journals. 

The  house  of  the  Rue  de  Sevres  could  not  be  passed 
over.  On  the  28th,  a  drunken  rabble  presented  them- 
selves before  it.  The  staggering  victors  yelled  forth  the 
favorite  cry,  "Down  with  the  Jesuits!"  "Death  to  the 
Jesuits !  "  It  was  eight  in  the  evening,  and  the  commu- 
nity were  at  recreation  in  the  garden.  Father  Varin,  the 
Superior,  ordered  the  Fathers  to  the  chapel,  there  to  await 
what  Providence  might  decree.  But  this  same  good  Prov- 
idence permitted  a  cry  to  be  heard,  w^hich,  without  doubt, 
emanated  from  one  of  the  leaders :  "  To  the  missionaries ! 
to  the  missionaries!"  and  at  once  the  door,  which  had 
already  begun    to  yield  to  the   repeated  blows   of   these 

by 


258  HISTORY    or    the    society    of    JESUS. 

fanatics,  was  abandoned,  tlie  infuriated  mob  departed,  and 
Father  Yarin  directed  all  to  evacuate  the  house,  instruct- 
ing them  whither  to  proceed,  and  leaving  the  premises  in 
charge  of  some  of  the  brothers,  he  himself  was  the  last 
to  depart. 

In  the  interior,  the  revolution  was  everj-where  con- 
ducted as  in  Paris,  especially  where  there  were  Jesuits. 
The  insurrectionists  applied  the  name  of  Jesuit,  as  a 
term  of  reproach,  to  all,  men  or  women,  who  were  want- 
ing in  effrontery.  In  the  country  places,  the  simple  vil- 
lagers did  not  rise ;  they  confined  themselves  to  inventing 
fables,  the  originators  of  which  were  as  terrified  as  those 
to  whom  they  were  related.^  At  Amiens,  while  the  rev- 
olutionary rabble  went  through  the  streets  of  the  city, 
yelling  forth  songs  of  triumph,  on  the  night  of  the  29th 
of  July,  a  cry  was  suddenly  heard,  "  On  to  St.  Acheul !  " 
and  the  rioters  rushed  madly  on,  with  shouts  of  "  Hurrah 
for  the  Charter !  hurrah  for  hell !  down  with  every  thing  !  " 
They  attacked  the  College  of  St.  Acheul,  which,  since  the 
suppression  of  the  seminaries  directed  by  the  Fathers,  had 
become  a  scholasticate.  This  took  place  in  the  dead  of 
night.  The  doors  were  forced,  and,  in  spite  of  the  ob- 
scurity, the  excited  mob  advanced,  under  the  direction  of 
one  of  its  leaders,  shouting  cries  of  death  and  clamoring 
for  more  drink.  Father  de  Ravignan  made  his  appear- 
ance at  a  window,  and,  by  kind  words,  attempted  to  calm 
the  infuriated  crowd.      A  stone,  hurled  at  him  with  too 

*We  were  personally  witness  of  a  fact  of  this  sort,  in  the  depart- 
ment de  Seive-et-Oise.  The  good  peasants,  who  had  been  led  to 
dread  the  Jesuits  as  so  many  hobgoblins  and  weir-wolves,  honestly 
thought,  during  the  revolution  of  July,  1830,  that  the  cellars  of  the 
chateau  were  filled  with  muskets,  powder,  balls,  and  Jesuits.  They 
trembled  with  fear  lest  the  chateau  should  take  fire,  for,  said  they, 
in  such  a  case  the  village  will  be  blown  up ;  and  they  kept  at  a  very 
respectful  distance  from  it,  particularly  during  the  night,  for  fear  a 
Jesuit  should  fire  upon  them  through  the  grating! 


GENERALSHIP    OV    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        259 

true  an  aim,  wounded  him  in  the  head.  A  scholastic,  who 
was  by  his  side,  drew  him  back  into  the  house,  and  then 
kneeling,  for  a  i'ew  moments,  at  the  feet  of  our  Lord,  in 
the  chapel,  returned,  confronted  the  mob,  and,  wishing  to 
gain  time,  endeavored  to  prevail  upon  them  to  hear  him. 
But  just  then  the  tocsin  was  sounded,  and  one  of  the 
rioters  rushed  upon  the  young  Jesuit,  aiming  at  him  a 
blow  with  an  iron  bar  ;  he  evaded  the  stroke,  and,  at  the 
very  moment,  the  insurgents,  fearing  the  arrival  of  aid, 
which  had  been  summoned  by  the  alarm-bell,  took  to 
fliirht.  Thus  was  the  celebrated  College  of  St.  Acheul 
rescued  from  destruction. 

In  order  to  meet  the  demands  of  those  families  whom 
the  most  Christian  government  had  deprived  of  Christian 
teachers,  the  Fathers  had  established  a  college  on  the  con- 
fines of  France  and  Spain,  at  a  place  called  le  Passage,  near 
St.  Sebastian,  There  they  received  those  children  whose 
parents  sought  to  shield  them  from  the  teachings  of  the 
University.  Other  Jesuits  dispersed  throughout  France, 
yielding  to  the  wish  of  the  bishops,  devoted  themselves  to 
the  labors  of  the  apostleship,  while  awaiting  the  day  when 
they  might  once  more  return  to  their  houses  as  in  former 
times. 

In  the  same  year,  1830,  Belgium  had  also  had  her  rev- 
olution, which,  however,  was  for  quite  an  opposite  object. 
She  had  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  a  government  which  aimed 
at  the  destruction  of  Catholicity.  She  declared  her  inde- 
pendence, in  order  to  preserve  the  faith  of  her  people. 
The  King  whom  they  then  selected,  Leopold  of  Saxe-Co- 
burg,  although  a  Lutheran,  promised  to  respect  all  re- 
ligions, and  to  guarantee  freedom '  of  conscience.  The 
Belgians  took  advantage  of  this  to  send  to  Rome  for  some 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  prepared  to 
receive  them  by  erecting  colleges  and  residences  for  them 
in  several  cities. 


260  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

In  the  same  jear,  an  emeiite  broke  out  in  Dresden,  to 
the  old  revolutionary  crj  of  "  Long  live  Liberty  !  Death 
to  the  Jesuits  ! "  Father  Gracchi,  confessor  to  the  royal 
family,  and  also  of  the  sick  poor  in  the  hospital,  was,  at 
the  time,  iu  a  house  occupied  by  priests.  Toward  this 
house  the  rioters  directed  their  steps,  still  shouting, 
"  Down  with  the  Jesuits  1  Death  to  the  Jesuits !  No 
more  Jesuits!"  Father  Gracchi  appeared  before  the  infu- 
riated rabble,  calm,  dignified,  and  animated  by  a  holy 
courage.  Raising  his  voice  above  the  tumultuous  shouts 
of  the  crowd,  he  said  :  "  You  call  for  Jesuits.  I  am  here, 
the  only  one  of  my  Order,  and  I  respond  to  your  call — • 
here  I  am  !  "  That  voice  was  not  unfamiliar  to  the  peo- 
ple, and  suddenly  quelled  the  excitement.  The  Jesuit 
beheld  every  head  inclined  before  him.  The  tumult  was 
appeased. 

The  enemies  of  the  Church  were  at  work,  every-where 
at  the  same  time.  The  commotion  was  general  throughout 
Europe,  and  in  every  place  the  Jesuits  were  sure  to  be 
made  the  scape-goats.  At  Brunswick,  the  President  of 
the  Consistory  denounced  Fathers  Beckx  and  Lusken,  the 
former  at  Koethen,  the  latter  at  Hildesheim,  as  guilty  of 
attempting  the  conversion  of  a  Protestant ;  and,  more- 
over— an  awkward  admission — even  before  having  suc- 
ceeded iu  converting  him,  of  having  placed  a  dagger  in 
his  hands  for  the  purpose  of  ridding  them  of  a  preacher 
whose  learning  and  talent  were  obnoxious  to  them.  At 
Brunswick,  the  simple-minded  public  was  as  credulous  as 
elsewhere.  No  one  was  surprised  at  the  improbability  of 
such  a  calumny.  What  appeared  strange,  was  the  hypoc- 
risy of  these  two  religious,  who,  until  then,  had  so  acted 
as  to  win  the  respect  even  of  their  enemies.  The  author 
of  this  outrageous  fable,  the  President  of  the  Consistory, 
whose  name  was  Hurlebusch,  was  so  well  pleased  with  his 
success,  that  he  determined  to  continue.      lie  published  a 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTIIAAN.        261 

detniled  account  of  the  crime  of  which  the  two  Jesuits 
hiid  been  accused.  According  to  this  pamphlet,  Fatlier 
Beckx  had  inculcated  to  Timpe — the  name  of  the  Prot- 
estant whom  he  had  converted — that  the  assassination  of 
heretics  was  a  work  which,  in  the  sight  of  God,  was  more 
acceptable  than  any  other,  and  that  the  killing  of  a  pastor 
was  still  more  meritorious.  It  was  absurd  to  suppose  that 
the  best  means  of  converting  a  Protestant  was  to  advise 
him  to  murder  a  minister  of  his  own  persuasion.  The 
Jesuits,  whom  they  pretended  to  be  so  cunning,  could  not 
be,  at  the  same  time,  such  mere  bunglers.  No  one  detected 
this  improbability — it  was  too  palpable  ;  no  one  reflected 
upon  it — it  was  too  simple.  The  pamphlet  was  approved 
and  widely  circulated,  even  in  the  schools,  in  order  to  im- 
press upon  the  very  children  the  true  notion  of  a  Jesuit, 
and  the  danger  they  incurred  in  approaching  him. 

Father  Beckx,  it  is  true,  had  to  reproach  himself  with 
having  made  more  than  one  conversion,  and  having  re- 
ceived  several  abjurations  at  Koethen,  where  he  effected 
much  good,  and  where  he  was  dearly  loved;  but  he  had 
never  sought  to  make  these  conversions  by  teaching  that 
assassination  was  a  virtue.  Jesuit  though  he  was,  he  de- 
sired, for  the  sake  of  religion,  and  for  the  honor  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  and  of  his  personal  character  as  a  priest, 
to  cause  the  truth  to  triumph,  and  he  gave  a  formal  con- 
tradiction to  the  journal  which  had  first  spread  the  cal- 
umny. 

This  means  not  accomplishing  the  desired  end,  Father 
Beckx  had  recourse  to  a  court  of  law.  The  truth  was  made 
known  ;  the  imposture  was  exposed,  and  Hurlebusch  was 
condemned,  as  a  calumniator,  to  retract,  in  writing,  that 
which  he  had  had  the  temerity  to  put  forth.  From  this 
judgment  he  appealed,  but  the  sentence  was  confirmed. 
Wishing  to  gain  time,  he  pretended  that  he  was  under 
the  necessity  of  making  a  visit  to  the  Hartz  Mountains, 
59* 


262  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JKSUS. 

hoping,  by  this  means,  to  save  himself  tlie  humility  thus 
imposed  upon  him  by  a  judicial  decision.  He  fell  dead, 
in  an  apoplectic  fit. 

We  will  here  state,  at  once,  that  Timpe,  his  accomplice, 
although,  to  all  appearance,  protected  by  his  co-religion- 
ists, after  having  suffered  all  the  shame  and  humiliation 
of  a  detected  impostor,  retired  to  Cologne,  where,  in  the 
year  1833,  racked  by  remorse,  he  made  a  full  retracta- 
tion before  the  public  tribunal  of  that  city. 

The  revolutionary  spirit  was  at  work  in  Portugal,  as 
well  as  in  all  the  other  European  states  ;  but  it  could  not 
raise  the  cry  of  "  Death  to  the  Jesuits,"  as  those  holy  re- 
ligious had  been  exiled  from  that  country  for  upward  of 
seventy  years.  Don  Miguel  felt  the  necessity,  as  well  as 
the  propriety,  of  reinstating  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  a 
country  to  which  it  was  allied  by  so  many  associations,  in 
which  it  had  labored  so  successfully,  from  the  time  of  John 
III  to  Joseph  I,  and  from  which  the  impiety  of  Pombal  had 
caused  it  to  be  so  cruelly  torn.  The  name  of  Jesuit  was  still 
livinji:,  still  loved,  and  still  blessed  throu«:hout  the  whole 
kingdom.     Don  Miguel  could  ncjjit  but  recognize  the  fact. 

In  1829,  this  Prince,  through  the  Marquis  de  Lavradio, 
his  Ambassador  at  Rome,  requested  that  some  Fathers  of 
the  society  might  be  spared  him.  He  felt  that  the  surest 
means  of  consolidating  his  throne  was  to  base  it  upon  those 
principles  which  the  Jesuits  had  always  inculcated,  and 
his  heart  dictated  to  him  that  this  act  of  reparation  was 
due  to  the  Order  of  St.  Ignatius,  of  which  a  Portuguese 
Minister  had  been  the  first  and  most  inveterate  perse- 
cutor. 

Scarcely  had  the  Ambassador  made  known  the  desire  of 
his  sovereign,  than  Father  Godinot,  Provincial  of  France, 
received  orders  to  send  some  of  his  reliirious  to  that  Por- 
tugal  where  the  society  had  numbered  so  many  victims, 
where  Pombal  had  made  so  many  martyrs. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTIIAAN.        203 

Father  Godinot  sent  six  Fathers  and  two  Brothers,  un- 
der the  direction  of  Father  Delvaiix.  On  their  departure, 
he  gave  them  his  blessini:;,  phiced  them  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Indies,  and,  as  a  pledge  of 
that  protection,  gave  them  a  portrait  of  the  illustrious 
Francis  Xavier.  This  was  a  painting,  after  death,  executed 
at  Goa,  by  command  of  Queen  Anne  of  Austria.  This 
canvas,  of  which  only  an  imperfect  copy  had  been  taken, 
was  invaluable ;  but  the  province  of  France  could  well 
make  this  sacrifice  to  that  of  Portugal. 

On  the  13th  of  August,  1829,  the  Fathers  arrived  at 
Lisbon.  The  Ministers,  not  being  so  anxious  as  the  King 
to  have  among  them  the  successors  of  St.  Francis  Xavier, 
Simon  Rodrio'uez,  and  of  all  those  heroes  who  had  won  the 
crown  of  martyrdom  in  the  Portuguese  colonies,  had  not 
given  directions  for  the  reception  of  the  Fathers.  The 
holy  religious  arrived  without  any  other  resource  than 
their  vow  of  poverty,  and  did  not  even  find  a  shelter  pre- 
pared for  them  by  those  at  whose  bidding  they  had  made 
so  long  a  journey.  The  Lazarists  became  their  benefactors, 
and  extended  to  them  every  hospitality.  Scarcely  had  the 
news  of  their  arrival  become  known,  when  a  lady  of  the 
highest  distinction  hastened  to  the  house  of  the  Lazarists, 
accompanied  by  her  four  children,  and  requested  to  see 
the  Jesuit  Fathers.  Her  agitation  was  visible.  The  Supe- 
rior was  informed  of  her  visit,  and  that  the  lady  was  no  less 
a  personage  than  Donna  Francisca  de  Saldanha,  Countess 
d'Oliveira,  granddaughter  of  the  too  notorious  Minister 
Carvalho,  Marquis  de  Pombal.  On  entering  the  parlor, 
the  good  Fathers  did  not  experience  less  emotion  than  that 
evinced  by  the  distinguished  visitor.  On  beholding  the 
successors  of  those  who  had  suffered  a  cruel  martyrdom 
at  the  hands  of  her  grandfather,  the  pious  lady  could  no 
lonii::er  retain  her  feelings.  Father  Delvaux  himself  're- 
lates  the  interview : 


2G4  HISTORY   OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

"  She  cast,  herself  at  our  feet,  to  our  great  discomfiture,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  to  our  greatest  edification.  She  begged  forgiveness 
of  the  whole  society,  through  us,  in  the  name  of  her  ancestor,  and 
asked  our  blessing  on  herself  and  her  children.  She  had  four  sons, 
whom,  as  you  may  imagine,  we  pressed  to  our  hearts  with  great  af- 
fection and  feelings  of  consolation." 

The  s:randdaiio;hter  of  Pombal  did  more:  she  secured 
for  her  sons  tTie  first  four  places  in  the  very  first  college 
the  Jesuits  should  open. 

The  Duchess  of  Lafoens  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Fathers  one  of  her  country  houses,  called  la  Maraviglia. 
It  was  not  until  the  24th  of  October  that  the  Minister  con- 
cerned himself  about  them. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Liberals  began  to  show  displeas- 
ure at  the  return  of  the  Jesuits;  the  government  became 
alarmed;  nothing  was  determined  on.  and  the  zeal  of  the 
Jesuits  was  trammelled.  Cardinal  Justiniani,  the  Pope's 
Nuncio,  prevailed  upon  them  to  preach,  during  the  Lent  of 
1830,  in  the  Church  of  Loretto,  which  was  specially  set 
apart  for  foreigners,  and  was  entirely  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Nuncio.  The.  Fathers  set  about  their  labors, 
preached,  heard  confessions,  and  gave  retreats  with  great 
success,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  inhabitants  of  Lis- 
bon begged  them  to  establish  a  college  in  the  city. 

During  this  time,  the  Carbonari  were  secretly  at  work 
in  Italy,  and  only  awaited  a  favorable  opportunity  to  cre- 
ate an  insurrection.  They  thought,  for  a  moment,  that 
their  time  had  come,  when  they  heard  of  the  death  of 
Pius  VIII,  which  took  place  November  30th,  1830.  They 
were  mistaken.  A  few  of  the  legations  arose  to  the  cry 
of  ^'■Long  live  the  Independence  of  Italy  I ''^  But,  on  the  2d 
of  February,  1831,  the  conclave  gave  to  the  Church  a  new 
Pontiff.  Gregory  XVI  succeeded  Pius  VIII,  and  the  in- 
surgents, not  findfng  themselves  united,  suddenly  stopped 
their  premature  revolt. 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER   JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        2G5 

II. 

The  Carbonari  had  hoped  that  the  dehiys  of  the  con- 
clave would  aiford  them  sufficient  time  to  lead  the  insur- 
gents to  Rome,  and  possess  themselves  of  the  Eternal 
City.  This  point  once  gained,  they  would  have  possessed 
themselves  of  the  members  of  the  Sacred  College,  sup- 
pressed the  Papacy,  and  proclaimed  to  the  world  that,  the 
Church  being  annihilated,  each  one  would  henceforth  be 
free  to  believe  and  act  according  to  his  own  individual 
convictions — upon  condition,  however,  that  the  revolu- 
tionized countries  should  unconditionally  subniit  to  the 
yoke  of  the  demagogues.  Independence  was  to  be  pur- 
chased at  the  price  of  slavery. 

The  election  of  Gregory  XVI  had  completely  subverted 
this  plan.  The  Carbonari  did  not  give  up.  They  organ- 
ized an  outbreak  for  the  17th  of  February  ;  but  Cardinal 
Bernetti,  Secretary  of  State,  being  informed  of  the  plot, 
prevented  its  execution. 

The  insurgents,  being  unable  to  do  any  thing  better,  for 
the  time  being,  determined  that,  while  awaiting  a  more 
favorable  opportunity,  they  should  have  a  thrust  at  the 
Jesuits.  No  sooner  was  this  resolved  upon,  than  they  re- 
sumed their  muskets,  swords,  and  tricolor.  The  word  was 
given,  and  the  turbulent  throngs  marched  to  victory.  On 
the  same  day,  and  at  the  same  hour,  the  Jesuits  were 
driven  out  from  their  colleges  of  Spoleto,  Fano,  Modena, 
lleG-ffio,  Forli,  and  Ferrara.  Their  houses  were  sacked 
and  plundered ;  but  the  victors  were  soon  vanquished,  and 
the  Fathers  returned  to  their  colleges,  to  the  inexpressi- 
ble joy  of  every  Christian  heart. 

While  infuriated  demagogues  thus  made  war  upon  the 
Jesuits  in  various  parts  of  Europe,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
through  the  medium  of  Cardinal  Zurla,  engaged  all  the 
religious  orders  in  Rome  to  perform  the  spiritual  exer- 


266  HISTORY  OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

cises  of  St.  Ignatius,  under  the  direction  of  the  celebrated 
Jesuit,  Finetti,  in  the  Church  of  the  Gesii. 

In  France,  impiety  was  still  at  \\:ork,  exciting  the  evil 
passions  of  man  against  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  hnvful 
princes  were  exiled,  and  the  throne  was  given  to  Louis 
Philippe,  Duke  of  Orleans,  upon  whom  the  Liberals  had 
forced  a  charter,  to  suit  themselves.  Their  triumph  was 
complete,  and  the  Liberals,  for  the  time  being,  revelled  in 
its  enjoyment.  There  was,  to  be  sure,  a  slight  relapse 
into  Jesuifaphohia,  at  Amiens,  in  1831.  A  few  rioters 
attacked  the  house  of  St.  Acheul,  and  there  committed 
all  the  havoc  they  could,  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  doing 
evil;  but  there  it  stopped.  In  the  month  of  February, 
1832,  the  cholera  made  its  appearance  in  France,  and,  no 
sooner  did  it  spread,  than  that  dread  of  the  Jesuit  was 
aroused  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  capital — that 
fear  which  had  so  often  weighed  upon  their  hearts  and 
interrupted  its  repose. 

The  people — we  can  not  repeat  it  too  often — knew 
not  what  a  Jesuit  was.  Their  sole  idea  of  one  was 
that  which  had  been  instilled  into  their  minds  through 
the  columns  of  impious  publications.  In  their  estima- 
tion, a  Jesuit  was  not  a  priest,  not  a  religious,  but  sim- 
ply an  evil-disposed  being,  somewhat  of  a  magician,  when 
occasion  required  it,  casting  spells  on  men  and  brutes. 
And,  from  the  first  appearance  of  the  terrible  scourge, 
there  was  only  one  cry  among  the  people,  accusing  the 
Jesuits  of  having  poisoned  the  wells,  the  fountains,  and 
the  Seine  itself!  As  to  the  wine,  the  question  was  not 
mooted  ;   the  dread  of  the  Jesuit  stopped  there. 

The  direful  contagion  called  forth  the  Fathers  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  from  their  peaceful  retreat.  They  hast- 
ened to  bestow  upon  the  poor  all  the  tender  cares  which 
their  pure  charity  dictated,  the  sweet  consolations  of  their 
holy  ministry,  and  the  poor,  not  knowing  that  their  ben- 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.         267 

efact^rs  were  Jesuits,  welcomed  thein  with  gratitude  and 
admiration.  Wherever  the  epidemic  raged  most  fiercely, 
there,  also,  were  to  be  found  the  Sons  of  Ignatius,  taking 
upon  themselves  the  care  of  the  sick  and  dying,  with  that 
heroic  self-denial  for  which  the  society  has  ever  been  dis- 
tinguished under  similar  visitations. 

Father  Barthes,  at  the  request  of  the  Bishop  of  Amiens, 
went  to  the  aid  of  the  Curate  of  Moislain,  whose  age  and 
infirmities  prevented  him  from  discharging,  by  himself 
alone,  the  labors  of  his  mission.  After  the  epidemic  had 
subsided,  the  Board  of  Health  of  Peronnet,  struck  by  his 
extraordinary  charity,  thus  refers  to  him  in  the  ofiicial 
report : 

"  During  the  prevalence  of  the  epidemic,  M.  Barthes,  while  afford- 
ing the  poor  sufferers  the  consolations  of  religion,  ceased  not  to 
lavish  upon  them  the  most  tender  and  untiring  care,  administer- 
ing to  them,  with  his  own  hand,  the  remedies  prescribed,  chang- 
ing their  linen,  and  not  hesitating  to  perform  for  them  the  most 
menial  and  repulsive  services." 

The  Jury  of  the  Department  did  still  more  :  it  awarded 
a  medal  in  bronze  to  Father  Barthes,  as  a  souvenir  of  his 
own  noble  devotion,  of  the  gratitude  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Moislain,  and  that  of  the  department  of  the  Somme. 

•  The  house  of  St.  Acheul,  which  had  been  thrown  open 
to  the  soldiers  attacked  by  the  disease,  was  converted  into 
a  military  hospital,  and  the  Fathers*  example,  in  their  de- 
voted attention  to  the  sufferers,  was  attended  with  the  hap- 
piest results  for  the  glory  of  God.  Among  those  thus 
received  through  their  charity,  many  had  been  merely 
baptized,  but  had  never  approached  the  sacraments.  To 
such,  the  holy  religious  afforded  the  necessary  instruc- 
tion, and  had  the  happiness  of  witnessing  many  approach 
the  holy  communion  for  the  first  time,  in  all  those  cities 
where  the   Jesuits   were   stationed,   the  example  of  their 


268  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

zeal   was   the    same,  and  elicited    general  admiration    for 
their  unbounded  charity. 

A  few  turbulent  spirits,  feeling  that  such  unexampled 
devotedness  was  as  prejudicial  to  the  progress  of  revolu- 
tionary principles  as  it  was  beneficial  to  that  of  religion, 
sought  to  reenkindle  the  hatred  of  the  Liberals.  Father 
Druilhet,  Provincial  of  France,  on  his  way  from  Spain  to 
Kome,  stopped  at  Bordeaux,  where  he  was  arrested.  !<• 
was  the  28th  of  June,  1832.  What  motive  was  there  for 
such  a  proceeding  y  None  whatever,  except  that  he  came 
from  Spain,  and  was  going  to  Rome,  and,  therefore,  must 
be  engaged  in  a  conspiracy.  His  rank  of  Provincial  ren- 
dered him  formidable  to  the  authorities.  They  imagined 
that  he  was  the  bearer  of  important  private  dispatches  to 
the  Father-General,  and  they  hoped  to  make  some  won- 
derful discoveries  by  an  examination  of  his  papers.  These 
were  most  minutely  scrutinized  by  the  Council,  who  would 
have  been  more  than  satisfied  could  they  have  discovered 
only  one  single  line  to  compromise  him  ever  so  little.  It 
was  labor  lost.  The  police  had  been  frustrated  in  their 
hopes  and  designs,  and  they  were  compelled  to  set  the 
good  Father  at  liberty. 

On  the  29th  of  September,  of  the  same  year,  Father 
Besnoin  was  arrested  at  Tours,  through  a  like  error  on  the 
part  of  the  police.  He  profited  by  his  incarceration  tc 
speak  of  God  to  the  prisoners.  The  latter,  moved  by  the 
holy  inspirations  thus  conveyed  to  their  hearts,  derived 
advantaue  from  them.  Conversions  w^ere  efi"ected,  and 
when  the  authorities  came  to  set  him  free,  he  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  remain  a  little  longer,  to  complete  the  work 
of  salvation  so  happily  commenced. 

In  the  mean  time,  Charles  X,  who  had  retired  t'^ 
Prague  with  his  family,  beheld,  with  sorrow,  the  difier- 
euce  of  opinion  existing  among  the  personages  who  com- 
posed his  little  court.     Each  one  had  his  own  idea  as  to 


GENERALSUIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ilOOTUAAN.        269 

the  education  to  be  given  to  the  youthful  Duke  of  Bor- 
deaux, and  each  one  sought  to  have  his  views  adopted, 
asserting  that  the  sacrifices  he  had  made  were  such  as  to 
entitle  his  advice  to  consideration  on  the  part  of  the 
fallen  monarch.  The  hopelessness  of  bringing  about  an 
understanding  among  them  inspired  Charles  X  with  the 
idea  of  confiding  the  education  of  the  young  Prince  to 
the  Society  of  Jesus.  He  communicated  his  desire  to 
the  General,  who  did  not  see  fit  to  entertain  the  proposal. 
Charles  X  insisted.  He  consulted  the  Pope,  and  Gregory 
XVI  prevailed  upon  Father  lioothaan  to  yield  to  the  de- 
sire of  the  dethroned  and  exiled  King,  adding  that,  in  case 
of  further  refusal,  he  should  feel  called  upon  to  use  his 
authority.  This  settled  the  question,  and  Fathers  Ste- 
phen Deplace  and  Julien  Druilhet  received  orders  to  pro- 
ceed to  Prauue. 

Amono;  the  Leiritimists  who  surrounded  Charles  X  in 
his  exile,  or  who  went  from  Paris  to  Prague  on  what  they, 
at  times,  termed  a  pilgrimage,  some  asserted  that  he  had 
lost  his  crown  in  consequence  of  his  too  numerous  con- 
cessions to  the  extremists.  The  others,  on  the  contrary, 
maintained  that  if  he  had  firmly  and  openly  concurred  in 
the  revolution,  he  would  still  be  at  the  Tuilleries.  The 
natural  deduction  from  these  disputations  was,  that  the 
former  demanded  that  the  education  of  the  young  Prince 
should  be  based  upon  the  old  system,  while  the  latter 
desired  that  he  should  be  brought  up  in  the  principles 
more  in  accordance,  as  they  pretended,  with  the  times  in 
which  he  lived.  It  was  while  these  conflicting  opinions 
were  at  their  height  that  the  two  Jesuits  arrived  for  the 
purpose  of  undertaking  the  education  of  the  Prince,  being 
determined  to  carry  out  the  instructions  of  their  General, 
and  under  no  circumstances  to  exceed  them.  "Sire,"  said 
Father  Deplace  to  Charles  X,  "  we  have  come  at  your  bid- 
ding; we  will  leave  whenever  you  may  desire  it." 
60 


270  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

As  ia  well  known,  the  Jesuits  possess  an  extraordinary 
faculty  of  winning  the  hearts  and  minds  of  their  pupils^ 
and  of  imparting  a  charm  to  all  their  teachings  and  in- 
structions. Fathers  Druilhet  and  Deplace  soon  found  that 
they  were  beloved  and  esteemed  by  the  Duke  of  Bordeaux^ 
who  evinced  for  them  a  truly  filial  affection.  A  few  days 
after  the  arrival  of  the  two  Jesuits,  he  said  to  Father 
Druilhet: 

"I  have  my  failings;  but  I  know  what  they  are,  and 
sincerely  desire  to  correct  them." 

"My  Lord,"  replied  the  Father,  "there  are  two  certain 
means  to  attain  this  end." 

"Indeed!  and  which  are  they?"  eagerly  asked  the 
Prince. 

"  To  reflect  and  control  oneself,  my  Lord." 

"  Reflecliii'  et  se  vaincre,''  repeated  the  youth,  who  had 
not  yet  attained  his  thirteenth  year.  "  Well,  that  shall  be 
my  motto." 

What  hopes  might  not  his  preceptors  have  entertained, 
could  they  only  have  insured  a  future  in  which  to  develop 
this  generous  nature,  these  rare  dispositions  !  But  each 
day  the  Progressionists  reproached  Charles  X  with  the 
Jesuitical  education  he  was  giving  to  the  Prince,  assuring 
him  that  nothing  could  render  him  more  unpopular  in 
France,  and  that  the  Legitimists  feared  for  the  elder  branch 
of  the  Bourbons,  so  long  as  the  two  Jesuits  held  in  their 
hands  the  heart  and  the  conscience  of  the  Prince,  in  whom 
alone  were   centred   the  future  hopes  of  the  country. 

It  being  impossible  for  the  Fathers  to  contend  against 
the  disputants,  they  felt  constrained  to  take  their  departure. 
On  hearing  of  this  determination,  the  young  Prince  burst 
into  tears.  The  Baron  de  Damas,  Governor  of  the  young 
Duke,  was  also  to  leave  him. 

'How  this  separation  afflicts  me,"  said  the  royal  youth. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.         271 

"  Oh,  tliat  my  grandfather  would  make  me  King  only  for 
one  hoiiv! " 

"Why  so,  my  Lord?" 

"Simply  that  I  might  issue  this  one  ordinance — -that 
they  should  remain  !  " 

On  the  30th  of  October,  Charles  X  announced  to  him 
that  the  Jesuits  were  to  depart,  and  that  on  the  following 
day  their  places  were  to  be  filled  by  others.  But  a  few 
moments  after,  the  young  Prince  met  Father  Druilhet. 

"All,  then,  is  lost,"  said  he  to  him;  "and  I  can  not  add, 
'  save  honor  !  '  " 

He  presented  to  the  Fathers  an  attestation,  written  by 
himself,  in  which  he  said  that  both  the  one  and  the  other, 
during  their  sojourn,  had  never  ceased  to  manifest  the 
greatest  consideration  and  affection  for  him ;  that,  were  he 
permitted  to  have  his  own  way,  he  would  never  consent  to 
their  quitting  him ;  in  fine,  that  he  deeply  deplored  being 
deprived  of  all  the  future  good  they  could  have  done  him. 
This  document,  to  which  the  Due  de  Bordeaux  affixed  his 
seal,  was  dated  the  31st  of  October,  1833.  On  that  day 
he  did  not  occupy  his  usual  place  at  the  dinner-table ;  he 
had  flung  himself  upon  his  bed,  where  he  freely  wept. 
Thus  he  continued  the  entire  night,  and  the  Baron  de 
Damas,  hearing  his  sobs,  entered  his  apartment  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  approached  his  bedside. 

"Oh,  Baron!"  exclaimed  he,  "give  me  some  words  of 
hope!  Do  not  leave  me;  I  am  in  such  deep  sorrow  I 
Must  I,  then,  lose  you  too,  as  well  as  these  two  Fathers, 
\ny  best  friends  ?  " 

For  two  hours  after,  his  tears  still  flowed.  He  then 
arose,  said  his  morning  prayers,  assisted  at  the  holy  sacri- 
fice, and  approached  the  holy  communion  with  angelic 
fervor,  and  soon  felt  fortified.  The  Baron  de  Damas  had 
likewise  communicated  at  the  same  mass.     On  quitting  the 


272       HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS 

diapel",  the  young  Prince  took  liim  to  one  side,  in  order 
not  to  be  overheard,  and  said  to  him  : 

"How  much  I  feel  benefited  by  this  mass!" 

"I  am  not  at  all  surprised,  my  Lord.  You  have  re- 
ceived into  your  heart  Him  who  is  strength  itself,  and 
the  true  consoler  of  the  afflicted," 

"  Yes,  Baron ;  but  did  not  the  Gospel  strike  you  ? 
What  beautiful  words  !  '  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn  ; 
for  they  shall  be  comforted.  Blessed  are  those  who  suffer 
persecution  for  justice'  sake.'  Did  not  these  words  strike 
you,  my  dear  Baron?"* 

On  the  2d  of  November,  the  Fathers  bade  farewell  to 
the  royal  family,  who  expressed  their  regret  at  the  separa- 
tion, and  on  the  3d  they  left  the  city  of  Prague,  and  re- 
turned to  France,  accompanied  by  the  Baron  de  Damas. 

III. 

On  the  3d  of  May,  1833,  the  Society  of  Jesus  lost  one 
of  its  brightest  ornaments.  Father  McCarthy  had  just 
died  at  Annecy.  Descended  from  one  of  the  most  illus- 
trious families  of  Ireland,  he  counted  among  his  ancestors 
many  who  were  of  royal  blood.  His  family,  from  their 
warm  attachment  to  the  Catholic  faith,  had  left  their  native 
soil,  and  had  settled  in  France,  in  the  city  of  Toulouse  ; 
but  the  Countess  McCarthy,  on  the  occasion  of  the  birth 
of  each  one  of  her  children,  went  to  Ireland,  in  order  to 
conserve  their  full  claims  to  nationality.  Thus  Father 
Nicholas  McCarthy  was  both  French  and  Irish.  He 
was  born  in  Dublin,  in  1769. 

Having  been  ordained  previous  to  entering  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  he  had  already,  by  his  great  eloquence,  and  by 
his    holiness    of  life,    gained    for   himself   a    great    name 

*  Notice  on  the  Reverend  P,  Etienne  Deplace,  by  the  Reverend 
Father  Guidee. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.    27 


o 


tliroughout  the  provinces  of  the  South.  His  power  of 
oratory,  which  was  irresistible,  won  over  to  God  the  most 
hardened  sinners,  and  brought  td^rs  to  the  eyes  of  all 
who  heard  him.  Never  was  Christian  eloquence  employed 
to  better  advantage  ;  never  had  any  one  been  listened  to 
whose  language  was  more  elegant,  attractive,  or  moving. 
In  1817,  he  preached  at  Toulouse.  The  people  flocked 
around  him,  eager  to  catch  every  syllable  as  it  fell  from 
his  eloquent  lips;  and  several,  who  were  notorious  Infidels, 
cast  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  apostle,  with  many  other 
sinners  whom  he  had  converted.  A  few  impious  young 
men,  infuriated  by  the  astounding  success  of  the  holy 
preacher,  and,  determined  to  hold  out  to  the  end  against 
his  persuasive  eloquence,  organized  an  unprecedented  con- 
spiracy. . 

On  Ascension  Day,  the  Abbe  McCarthy  preached  in  the 
Church  de  la  Dalbade.  His  theme  was  the  happiness  of 
heaven.  Every  eye  was  moistened,  every  soul  filled  with 
admiration.  Never  had  his  arguments  been  more  con- 
vincing; never  had  he  been  more  inspired,  more  filled 
with  the  Spirit  of  God.  He  was,  as  it  were,  transported 
from  earth.  "  At  the  conclusion  of  his  sermon,  he  experi- 
enced some  inconvenience  in  passing  through  the  crowd 
of  young  people,  who  surrounded  the  pulpit  and  filled 
every  aperture.  xVt  one  time  he  was  roughly  pressed 
against,  but  took  no  particulai:  notice  of  it.  His  mother's 
sedan-chair  awaited  him  at  a  side  door;  he  stepped  into 
it  and  returned  home.  His  servant,  on  removing  his  sur- 
plice, turned  pale,  looked  at  him,  and  said  : 

"What  has  happened  to  you,  Reverend  Father?" 
"Nothing,  that  I  am  aware  of;    why?" 
"  Why  ?     Do  only  examine  this  surplice." 
The  surplice  was  literally  hacked  to  pieces,  evidently 
with  a  knife  !      We  have  had  it  in   our  hands,  and   have 
minutely  examined  it.     It  was  full  of  rents,  some  of  them 
60* 


274  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

very  long,  indicating  tlie  force  with  wliich  the  instrument 
had  been  used  ;  and,  wonderful  to  relate,  the  cassock  was 
uninjured,  not  a  singtfe  niiirk  being  visible  upon  it.  The 
Abbe  McCarthy  forbade  any  mention  being  made  of 
this  fiendish  attempt.  His  mother,  however,  proud  of 
this  evidence  of  the  direct  interposition  of  Divine  Prov- 
idence in  behalf  of  her  son — of  that  son  who  was  her 
joy  and  her  pride — related  the  circumstance  to  some 
friends.  It  pleased  Almighty  God  that  this  marvellous 
occurrence  should  not  remain  entirely  unknown. 

When  the  Abbe  McCarthy  made  known  his  determina- 
tion of  entering  the  Society  of  Jesus,  it  caused  general 
regret  throughout  the  entire  city  of  Toulouse.  They 
mourned  him  as  if  he  were  upon  the  point  of  death. 
But  for  the  enemies  and  opponents  of  the  Jesuits  this 
intelligence  was  like  a  thunder-clap.  He  whose  learning 
and  talent  were  admired  alike  by  Gallican  and  ultramon- 
tane ;  he  whose  confessor,  Father  Gaillac,  formerly  a 
Franciscan,  said,  "  So  unworthy  do  I  consider  myself  to 
be  his  confessor,  that  I  would  wish  to  hear  his  confession 
on  my  knees  "= — the  Abbe  McCarthy — was  about  to  be- 
come a  Jesuit !  And  he  declared  that  he  was  very  well 
aware  what  those  terrible  Jesuits  were  !*  "If  he  remain 
with  them,"  said  some,  "  I  shall  no  longer  believe  any 
thing  that  may  be  written  or  said  against  the  Society  of 
Jesus  !  "  "  He  will  return  to  us,"  remarked  others.  "  He 
is  too  holy  a  man  to  devote  his  glorious  life  to  an  Order 
which  has  caused  itself  to  be  expelled  by  every  govern- 
ment. Father  Nicholas  McCarthy  deceived  the  hopes  of 
the  latter.  He  made  his  vows  in  the  society,  and  died 
in  it.     On  feeling  his  last  hour  approaching,  he  said  : 

"  What  a  glorious  day  to  die !  It  is  the  Feast  of  the 
Recovery  of  the  Holy  Cross!" 

*  During  twelve  years  he  had  contemplated  this  step  of  entering 
the  Society  of  St,  Ignatius. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JOHN'  ROOTHAAN.   275 

The  society  had  lost  one  of  its  members  who,  in  order 
to  obtain  admission  to  a  share  of  its  holy  poverty,  had 
sacrificed  all  the  attractions  which  birth  and  fortune  could 
offer  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  it 
received  into  its  bosom  another,  whose  name  was  blessed 
throughout  the  Pays-Messin,  and  who  belonged  to  a  fam- 
ily  which  boasted  neither  fortune  nor  nobility,  except  that 
of  virtue,  Nicholas  Potot,  who  began  life  as  a  lawyer  at 
Metz,  then  became  a  soldier  of  the  republic,  and,  under 
the  empire,  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Chief  of  Bat- 
talion. In  consequence  of  wounds  received  during  his 
military  career,  he  left  the  army,  and  offered  up  his  re- 
maining strength  to  the  service  of  Almighty  God.  He 
became  a  priest,  and  ardently  devoted  himself  to  works 
of  charity.  This,  however,  did  not  satisfy  the  cravings 
of  his  heart ;  he  felt  a  strong  desire  of  leading  a  holier 
though  not  a  less  laborious  life.  He  coveted  the  name 
of  Jesuit,  which  impiety  persecuted  with  such  an  invet- 
erate hatred.  He  was,  at  the  time,  sixty-two  years  of 
age.  He  lived  only  four  years  in  the  society,  and  died  at 
Metz,  on  the  2d  of  May,  1837.  His  death  caused  uni- 
versal sorrow.  The  inhabitants  of  the  city  where  he 
breathed  his  last,  had  admired  and  respected  in  him  the 
magistrate,  the  soldier,  the  priest,  the  canon,  and,  lastly, 
the  Jesuit.  Under  all  these  titles  they  paid  him  honor. 
The  magistracy,  the  officers  of  state,  the  chapter,  and  the 
clergy  of  the  city  assembled  around  his  mortal  remains, 
which  they  followed  to  their  last  worldly  resting-place. 
The  sword  of  the  valiant  captain,  and  the  epaulets  of 
his  highet*  rank,  were  deposited  upon  the  coffin  of  the 
Jesuit,  beside  the  stole  and  surplice  of  the  beloved  apos- 
tle. A  detachment  of  the  military  escorted  his  remains 
to  the  tomb,  and  the  mournful  roll  of  the  muffled  drum 
was  heard  alternately  with  the  solemn  but  sublime  chants 
of  the  Church,  while  the  crowds  of  poor,  who  had   been 


276  HISTORY    OF    THE   SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

aided  and  comforted  by  the  good  Father  during  his  min- 
istry, evinced,  by  their  tears  and  sobs,  how  heart-felt  was 
their  sorrow. 

The  Jesuits,  who  never  permit  themselves  to  be  dis- 
heartened, were  ever  ready  to  respond  to  the  call  of  the 
bishops,  going  wherever  there  was  a  probability  of  doing 
good.  The  ecclesiastical  retreats,  which  had,  unhappily, 
been  much  neglected,  were  actively  resumed  by  the  good 
Fathers,  who,  in  their  preaching,  exhibited  as  much  zeal 
as  talent.  Father  de  Ravignan,  whom  the  elite  of  society 
at  Paris  had  received  with  so  much  enthusiasm,  at  the 
Church  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  where  he  preached  the 
Lenten  sermons,  in  1836,  was  called  upon,  in  the  following 
year,  to  deliver  the  conferences  for  men  at  Notre  Dame. 
He  was  followed  thither  by  all  the  most  illustrious  per- 
sonages of  the  day.  The  combined  talent  of  the  bar 
and  of  the  literati  of  Paris  was  to  be  found  there,  watch- 
ing every  word  as  it  fell  from  the  learned  Father,  and  un- 
able to  detect  a  single  expression  which  it  could  turn 
to  account  against  that  Order  of  which  he  was  so  brjfrht 
an  ornament.  His  former  colleagues  in  the  magistracy 
were  aware  of  the  great  sacrifices  he  had  made  of  a  bril- 
liant and  glorious  future,  at  the  age  of  thirty  years,  to 
spend  the  remainder  of  his  days,  in  poverty,  humility, 
and  obedience,  in  an  Order  which  was  subject  to  so  much 
persecution.  All  these  recollections  appeared  to  be  so 
many  obstacles  to  his  eloquent  words  reaching  the  hearts 
of  his  hearers.  This  sterility  was  a  source  of  grief  to 
Father  de  Ravignan,  who  appealed  to  Almighty  God  while 
accusing  himself  of  being  its  cause.  Then  it  was  that 
Heaven  was  pleased  to  impart  to  him  that  salutary. inspi- 
ration, the  glorious  results  of  which  were  seen  each  year. 
In  1839,  he  commenced  a  retreat  for  men,  which  he  con- 
ducted during  Holy  Week.  The  fruits  of  this,  his  first 
mission,  were  so  great  for  the  glory  of  God,  as  to  cause 


GENERALSniP  OF  FATTIER  JOHN    ROOTHAAN.         277 

liim  iimcli  hope  for  the  future  ;  but,  at.  the  same  time,  it 
served  to  revive  the  hatred  of  the  enemies  of  God  and  of 
II is  Ciiurch, 

"In  1840,  impiety  resumed  its  campaign  against  the  Jes- 
uits. It  had  recourse  to  the  same  weapons  as  heretofore, 
being  unable  to  find  any  others.  It  was  ever  calumny  and 
absurdity  pushed  to  the  very  extreme. 

The  Jesuits  allowed  matters  to  take  their  course,  con- 
fining themselves  exclusively  to  accomplishing  their  one 
true  end,  the  greater  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of 
souls.     In    1843,   Father  de  Ravignan  gave   a  retreat  at 
Notre  Dame  during  Holy  Week,  and,  seeing  the  success  he 
obtained,    announced   that  there  would    be   general   com- 
munion on  Easter  Sunday  for  the  men  who  should  have 
prepared  themselves,  during  the  retreat,  for  their  Easter 
duties.     On   this  occasion,  the  number  of  communicants 
exceeded    three    thousand,   and  the  number   of  converts 
was  greater  than  that  of  any  previous   year.     This  tri- 
umph for  religion,   achieved  by  the  ministry  of  a  Jesuit, 
whom  they  persisted  in   designating  the  Abbe  de  Ravig- 
nan, was   a  check   for  the  impious,  who  thenceforth  re- 
doubled their  attacks  upon  the  society.     The  fury  of  these 
infatuated  minds  was  carried  so  far,  that  Father  de  Ravig- 
nan received  orders  from  his  Superior  to   refute  the  cal- 
umnies   by   which  it  was  sought  to  defame  the  Institute 
of  St.  Ignatius.     Then  it  was   that  appeared  that  remark- 
able work  of  the  celebrated  religious,  entitled,  De  lexist- 
ence  et  de   V InstitiU  des  Jesuites.     This  was  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  the  world  and  of  Catholicity.     The  Nestor 
of  the  Liberal  party,  the  aged  Roger  Collard,  an  old  pro- 
fessor, but  little  favorable  to  Christianity,  thus  wrote  upon 
this  subject  to  the  illustrious  Father  de  Ravignan,  under 
date  of  February  15th,  18-14: 

"Your   eloquent  defense  of  the   Institute  of  the  Jesuits  fully 
convinces  me  of  the  energy  of  that  extraordinary  society,  and  of 


278       HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

the  power  which  it  has  exercised.  Inasmuch  as  we  may  make 
comparison  between  things  the  most  dissimilar,  we  may  say  that 
Lycurgus  and  Sparta,  although  as  far  removed  as  earth  is  from 
heaven,  were  the  cradle  of  St.  Ignatius.  Sparta  has  passed  away; 
the  Jesuits  will  never  pass  away.  They  possess  a  principle  of  im- 
mortality in  Christianity,  and  in  the  warlike  passions  of  men." 

This  work  demonstrated  to  the  enemies  of  the  Church, 
and  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  that  they  were  in  the  wrong, 
without,  however,  restraining  the  overflow  of  their  hatred. 
Calumny,  falsehood,  and  sarcasm  still  pursued  the  good 
Fathers.  About  this  time,  the  Count  de  Chambord  made 
a  journey  to  England,  and  visited  the  College  of  St. 
Mary's,  Oscott,  No  sooner  did  the  fact  become  known, 
than  the  Liberal  journals  put  forth  statements  to  the  effect 
that  the  lesritimate  heir  to  the  throne  of  France  had  been 
received  by  the  Jesuits  with  marked  distinction.  Doctor 
(now  Cardinal)  Wiseman,  who  was  at  that  time  President  of 
the  College,  lost  no  time  in  giving  a  formal  contradiction 
to  this  report,  at  the  same  time  stating  that  there  never 
had  been  any  Jesuits  at  Oscott  ;  but  this  contradiction 
was  not  published  by  the  journals,  through  which  the  cal- 
umny had  first  been  circulated. 

At  this  time,  also,  appeared  that  infamous  work,  in  ten 
volumes,  "  The  Wandering  Jew."  from  the  pen  of  the 
impious  Eugene  Sue,  that  most  immoral  novelist  and 
panderer  to  the  lowest  orders  of  society,  who  was  so  want- 
ing in  shame  and  common  decency  as  to  represent  the 
Jesuits  acting  a  most  odious  part  in  the  ignoble  scenes  of 
his  foul  production.'  And,  in  order  to  make  his  Satanic 
pages  accessible  to  all,  he  published  them  in  the  sheets  of 
the  Constltutionnel. 

On  the  27th  of  August,  1845,  appeared  the  retractation 
of  Martial  Marcet  de  la  Roche  Arnaud,  which  increased 
the  anger  of  the  Liberals: 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTUAAN.   279 

"I  declare,"  said  the  repentant  calumniator,  "I  declare  sol- 
emnly, and  in  good  faith,  that  I  entirely  disappi'ove  and  contra- 
dict all  the  writings  I  have  ever  published  agains-t  the  Jesuits,  in 
1827,  1828,  and  1829 — not  that  I  deny  having  issued  them,  but  I 
condemn  them  as  the  shameful  fruits  of  a  vengeance  full  of  deceit; 
and  as  such,  I  now  submit  them,  as  I  have  long  since  done,  to  the 
censure  of  all,  or,  if  may  be,  to  eternal  oblivion. 

"  I  candidly  declare,  and  it  is  with  my  own  free  will  that  I  avow 
it,  so  as  not  even  to  admit  of  the  least  doubt,  that  it  was  party 
spirit  that  drew  me  into  this  scandalous  affair  of  which  the  Jesuits 
have  been  the  victims.  It  was  that  alone  which  suggested  to  me 
the  extravagant  horrors  which  I  detailed  to  the  public,  and  it  was 
to  the  multiplication  of  these  hideous  falsehoods  that  was  due  a, 
transitory  popularity  which  these  unfortunate  publications  ob- 
tained. • 

"I  declare  most  emphatically,  being  sincerely  grieved  for  what 
I  have  been  guilty  of,  that,  with  as  little  good  faith  as  truth,  so 
soon  as  I  had  left  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits,  where  I  had  received 
all  the  cares  and  attentions  sincere  friendship  and  paternal  care 
could  suggest,  that  I  wantonly,  falsely,  and  witliout  provocation, 
heaped  outrageous  slanders  upon  them,  by  such  base  personal 
abuse,  that,  when  I  reflect  seriously  upon  it,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  con- 
ceive how  a  rational  people  could  even  tolerate  them,  or  why  they 
have  escaped  punishment  at  the  hands  of  a  wise  and. powerful 
government." 

This  evidence  of  repentance  came  at  an  unfortunate  time 
for  the  quondam  accomplices  of  the  author — a  time  when 
they  were  leaving  no  stone  unturned  to  inflict  a  final  blow 
upon  the  Jesuits. 

IV 

Externally,  the  Jesuits  could  not  be  distinguished 
from  the  secular  priests.  They  had  no  particular  dress  ; 
they  possessed  no  colleges  ;  they  preached  and  heard  con- 
fessions without  the  least  attempt  at  ostentation ;  and  yet, 
in  spite  of  this  inoffensive  manner  of  living,  they  obstructed 
the  government  and  interrupted  its  repose.     It  is  true,  the 


280  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Jesuits  converted  sinners,  sustained  piety,  strengthened 
Christian  souls,  and  protected  them  from  the  dangers  with 
which  irreligion  surrounded  them,  and,  therefore,  it  was  of 
primary  importance  to  be  rid  of  them.  The  laws  had  no 
hold  upon  them.  There  was  no  tangible  point  upon  which, 
with  any  semblance  of  justice,  they  could  fasten  an  accusa- 
tion. The  government  took  upon  itself  to  enact  the  part 
of  Choiseul,  by  demanding  the  secularization  of  the  French 
Jesuits.  This  negotiation  was  confided  to  Rossi.  He  at 
once  proceeded  to  Kome  on  his  mission,  determined  to  re- 
turn only  as  the  vanquisher  of  the  Jesuits. 

Unhappily  for  his  cause^  Rome  knew  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  and  estimated  its  worth  by  its  past  glorious  career. 
She  had  been  witness  of  its  many  struggles,  and  its  bril- 
liant successes;  she  saw  the  ever-increasing  number  of  its 
saints,  its  martyrs,  and  its  heroes;  she  had  kept  count  of 
its  many  illustrious  members;  she  witnessed,  on  every  side, 
the  great  works  with  which  it  had  enriched  the  Church. 
In  regard  to  the  Jesuits,  Rome  had  nothing  to  learn. 

The  diplomatist  Rossi  had  calculated  upon  producing 
quite  a  different  impression  on  the  court  of  Rome.  He 
had  imagined  that  at  the  mere  mention  of  France,  so  quick 
for  revolutions,  every  thing  would  fall  before  him,  and  that 
he  had  only  to  speak  with  authority,  in  order  to  be  listened 
to  with  submission.  Disappointed  in  his  hopes,  he  essayed 
intimidation.  He  declared  that  his  government  would  have 
all  the  houses  and  novitiates  of  the  Jesuits  closed,  after 
forcibly  expelling  their  occupants,  and  that,  in  case  the 
Pope  persisted  in  his  refusal,  the  same  rigorous  measures 
should  be  extended  to  all  the  religious  congregations  not 
authorized  by  the  state.  All  this  was  to  be  done  in  the 
name  of  liberty.  It  was  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  See 
to  obviate  this  scandal,  which  would  certainly  tell  against 
the  clergy,  and  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  it  would  afford  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  JOHN   ROOTHAAN.         281 


Frencli  Government  the  satisfaction  of  ordering  the  Jes- 
uits to  close  their  houses  and  disperse. 

Tlie  petition  of  the  diplomatist  Rossi  was  duly  ac- 
knowledged, but  received  no  formal  reply.  He  then  re- 
solved to  try  a  master  stroke.  He  threatened  a  schism  in 
France,  unless  the  Pope  sacrificed  the  Jesuits.  On  the 
other  hand — that  is,  if  the  Jesuits  were,  by  command  of  the 
Holy  See,  compelled  to  quit  France,  at  least  temporarily — 
the  government  would  guarantee  entire  freedom  of  educa- 
tion, as  well  as  other  points   of  importance  to  religion. 

The  reply  of  the  Holy  See  was,  that  it  could  see  nothing, 
in  all  that  had  been  stated,  of  grave  importance  to  religion. 
His  Holiness  called  for  proofs  against  the  Jesuits,  and  de- 
manded that  evidence  should  be  adduced  upon  which  he 
could  act ;  but  this  was  precisely  what  these  apostles  of 
liberty  could  not  produce.  They  could  not  substantiate 
any  charge  against  the  society;  they  had  not  been  able  to 
discover  even  a  single  circumstance  which  was,  in  any  way, 
reprehensible.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff  had  taken  impiety 
by  surprise.  Rossi  fell  back  upon  the  unpopularity  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  adduced,  as  proof,  the  noise,  the  clamor,  and 
the  invectives  of  the  republican  ministerial  deputies,  when- 
ever the  name  of  Jesuit  was  pronounced  in  the  Chamber. 
He  must,  indeed,  have  been  at  a  loss  for  evidence  when  he 
adduced  this;  but,  for  want  of  better,  he  boldly  put  it  forth. 
The  Holy  See  saw  naught  but  the  highest  eulogium  in  such 
unpopularity.  The  Jesuits  were  popular  with  the  Chris- 
tians, who  flocked  in  crowds  to  their  sermons,  and  besieged 
their  confessionals.  They  were  unpopular  with  the  im- 
pious only,  and  with  those  who  were  misled  by  the  mis- 
representations and  calumnies,  circulated  so  freely  by  the 
enemies  of  their  Institute.  Could  the  Holy  See  condemn 
the  French  Jesuits  for  such  reasons?  As  for  the  schism, 
to  which  the  diplomatist  attached  so  much  importance,  the 


61 


282  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Roman  court  considered  such  a  thing  impossible,  and  fully 
relied  on  the  fidelity  of  the  clergy,  and  of  the  sounder 
portion  of  the  population,  who  were,  moreover,  tired  out 
with  so  many  intrigues  and  violent  shocks. 

The  Ambassador,  despairing  of  obtaining  that  which  he 
had  so  imperiously  demanded,  modified  his  tone,  and  con- 
fined himself  to  urging  some  concession,  no  matter  how 
slight,  in  order  to  save  the  dignity  of  his  government. 
Gregory  XVI,  out  of  consideration  for  Louis  Philippe, 
called  together  the  congregation,  to  whom  he  submit- 
ted Rossi's  demands.  It  decided  that  the  Pope  should 
make  no  concession.  According  to  its  opinion,  a  gov- 
ernment had  no  right  to  prevent  those  who  desired  it 
making  vows,  and  living  in  a  more  perfect  state;  and 
when  those  vows  Avere  made,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
Church,  in  an  order  regularly  authorized  by  the  Holy  See, 
no  government  had  a  right  to  demand  the  annulling  of  the 
same.  Private  consciences  Avere  not  in  its  keeping.  The 
bishops  of  France  solicited  from  the  Sovereign  Pontifi"  the 
conservation  of  the  Jesuits;  their  enemies,  through  the 
government,  called  for  their  annihilation.  Which  side 
deserved  to  be  preferred?  This  was  the  only  satisfaction 
Gregory  XVI  gave  to  Rossi.  The  diplomatist  could  not 
resign  himself  to  a  defeat.  The  abnegation  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Jesus  was  known  to  him.  It  was  to  that  he  would 
appeal,  through  the  intermediacy  of  the  Abbe  d'Isoard. 
The  Pope  would  not  sacrifice  the  society,  hence  the  soci- 
ety should  sacrifice  itself.  The  Abbe  d'Isoard  communi- 
cated the  demand  of  the  diplomatist  to  the  General  of  the 
Order,  and  Father  Roothaan,  to  show  some  of  that  spirit 
of  peace  and  conciliation  which  animates  the  Order  of  St. 
Ignatius,  directed  the  superiors  to  cause  a  temporary  dis- 
persion of  a  part  of  the  Fathers  residing  in  the  houses  in 
Paris,  Lyons,  Avignon,  and  other  cities. 

The  government  of  Louis  Philippe  did  not  so  announce 


QENERALSniP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        283 

the  fiict.     The  Monitcur  of  July  6th    tlius   proclaims  its 
victory : 

"His  Majesty's  government  has  received  intelligence  from 
Rome.  The  negotiation  with  which  M.  Rossi  was  charged,  has 
been  entirely  successful.  The  congregation  of  Jesuits  will  cease 
to  exist  in  France,  being  about  to  disperse  of  its  own  accord.  Its 
houses  will  be  closed,  and  its  novitiates  broken  up," 

This  falsehood  called  forth  the  most  unbounded  exulta- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  irreligious  press.  The  columns  of 
these  journals  were  filled  with  blasphemies  against  the 
Church  and  its  sovereign  head.  The  episcopate  raised 
its  voice  against  this  delirium  of  impiety.  One  of  the 
strongest  defenders  of  the  rights  of  the  Holy  See  and  of 
freedom  of  instruction,  Monsigneur  Parisis,  Bishop  of 
Langres,  now  Bishop  of  Arras,  after  having  recalled  atten- 
tion to  the  protest  of  the  French  episcopate  in  favor  of 
those  Jesuits  whose  total  destruction  was  now  insisted  on, 
added  : 

"  The  Jesuits,  we  are  aware,  were  greatly  rejoiced  and  grateful 
for  these  sentiments  and  expressions ;  but,  at  last,  they  were  made 
to  believe  that  this  generosity  of  the  episcopate  in  their  regard 
was  imprudent;  that,  in  accepting  the  support  of  the  bishops, 
they  seriously  and  undoubtedly  compromised  their  protectors, 
and,  with  them,  i-eligion  itself. 

"  We  may,  undoubtedly,  characterize  these  representations  as 
false,  and  feel  sorry  that  the  leaders  of  the  society  should  have 
believed  them;  but,  as  soon  as  it  is  admitted  that  they  enter- 
tained this  conviction,  must  we  not  admire  the  step  they  have  just 
taken  ? 

"  This  sacrifice,  so  quickly  and  so  freely  made,  does  it  not  reveal, 
unmistakably,  the  purity  of  their  intentions,  their  love  of  peace, 
their  exalted  sentiments,  and  their  readiness,  at  all  times,  to  de- 
vote themselves  to  the  public  weal.  Can  those  who,  for  years  past, 
have  accused,  injured,  and  menaced  them,  produce  similar  exam- 
ples? All  the  verbal  compliments,  all  the  published  eulogiums  of 
their  friends — are  they  equal  to  the  glorious  justification  which 
a  like  sacrifice  establishes?" 


284  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

At  Rome,  the  news  published  in  the  Moniteur  called 
forth  general  indignation.  The  Pontifical  court  was  loud 
in  its  denunciation  of  the  glaring  falsehood.  Rossi  de- 
clared that  he  had  communicated  the  fiicts  as  they  oc- 
curred, and  threw  all  the  blame  upon  those  who  had  falsi- 
fied his  dispatches.  The  embassy  was  held  responsible 
for  the  misrepresentation,  and  called  upon  to  make  repa- 
ration for  the  injury  done  the  Society  of  Jesus;  for  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  not  having  made  any  concessions  to  its 
enemies,  naturally  felt  his  dignity  wounded  by  the  offens- 
ive article  in  the  French  official  journal.  He  wished,  at 
the  same  time,  to  give  renewed  assurance  to  the  Jesuits 
of  the  feelings  he  still  entertained  toward  them. 

All  these  negotiations  had  excited  the  public  mind. 
The  Cabinet  of  the  Tuilleries  possessed  no  direct  dis- 
patches proving  the  participation  of  the  Holy  See  in  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jesuits,  and  it  was  sorely  in  need  of 
something  to  show  as  a  foundation  for  the  article  in  the 
Moniteur^  in  case — which  was  very  likely — it  might  be 
questioned  on  the  subject  at  the  opening  of  the  Chambers. 
A  means  of  escape  was  soon  devised.  In  the  month  of 
September,  the  Minister  wrote  to  M.  Rossi,  congratulat- 
ing him  upon  the  success  of  his  negotiation.  At  the  same 
time,  he  tendered  his  thanks  to  the  Pope  and  Cardinal 
Larabruschini  for  the  service  they  had  rendered  France  by 
ordering  the  Jesuits  to  disperse.  The  Minister  hoped, 
even  calculated  upon  finding,  in  the  official  answer,  some- 
thing that  might  be  interpreted  as  a  proof  of  the  interven- 
tion of  the  Pope  in  this  matter. 

Gregory  XYI  and  Cardinal  Lambruschini,  Secretary  of 
State,  at  once  perceived  the  trap  that  had  been  laid  for 
them  by  the  French  Government.  Both  one  and  the  other 
concluded  that  the  Cabinet  of  the  Tuilleries  should  be 
satisfied,  at  least,  on  one  point.     It  should  receive  an  au- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        285 

thentic  dispatch   from  the  Secretary  of  State.     The  Car* 
diual,  therefore,  replied  to  the  Minister: 

His  Holiness  is  gi-eatly  surprised  at  the  thanks  addressed  to 
him  and  to  his  Minister,  as  he  lias  made  no  concession  in  regard 
to  the  Jesuits.  Had  His  Holiness  taken  any  action,  he  could 
only  have  done  so  in  conformity  with  the  sacred  canons.  If  the 
government  of  His  Most  Christian  Majesty  has  any  thanks  to  re- 
turn, it  is  to  the  General  of  the  Jesuits  that  he  must  address  them; 
for,  without  command  or  counsel  of  the  Holy  See,  he  saw  fit  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  might  extricate  the  government  of  the 
King  from  its  embarrassments.  His  Holiness,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, admires  the  discretion,  the  sagacity,  and  the  self- 
devotedness  of  this  venerable  chief  of  the  society,  and  hopes  that, 
after  the  great  sacrifices  the  French  Jesuits  have  made,  in  the 
spirit  of  peace  and  conciliation,  His  Majesty's  government  will 
accord  them  protection." 

This  was  all  that  Louis  Philippe  and  his  Ministers 
could  obtain  from  the  Roman  court.  Thus,  as  Rossi  had 
anticipated,  he  was  called  upon  to  answer  on  this  subject, 
at  the  opening  of  the  session  of  1846,  and  he  found  him- 
self compelled  to  admit  his  defeat.  This,  however,  did 
not  prevent  the  Liberal  press  from  claiming  a  triumph 

V. 

On  the  17th  of  February,  1832,  at  an  early  hour  of  the 
morning,  a  feverish  excitement  was  perceptible  among  the 
simple  inhabitants  of  a  little  Portuguese  town  in  tlie 
Province  of  Beira,  Estremadura.  Happiness  beamed  from 
every  countenance,  every  heart  was  beating  for  joy.  Old 
men  lifted  their  hands  and  eyes  to  heaven,  while  they 
shed  tears  of  consolation  and  gratitude.  The  young  were 
impatiently  waiting  the  signal  for  departure.  All  were 
clothed  in  their  gala  dresses,  and  in  every  house,  rich  or 
poor,  preparation  was  being  made  for  a  holiday  of  unusual 

61* 


286  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    Or    JESUS. 

rejoicing.  About  half-past  nine  o'clock  the  signal  13 
given,  the  bells  of  the  churches  sound  their  merriest  peal, 
and  the  entire  population  hastens  to  join  the  clergy,  the 
religious  orders,  and  the  confraternities,  which,  preceded 
by  their  crosses  and  banners,  and  followed  by  the  magis- 
trates and  military,  direct  their  march  through  the  prin- 
cipal thoroughfares  of  the  city  to  the  hotel  where  distin- 
guished travellers  were  in  the  habit  of  alighting.  As  the 
head  of  the  procession  reaches  the  place,  two  strangers 
issue  forth  ;  the  ranks  open  to  receive  them,  and,  chant- 
ing the  Benedictus,  escort  them  to  the  parish  church, 
whence  they  had  started. 

The  two  travellers,  who  were  thus  so  solemnly  greeted, 
seemed  to  bear  the  triumph  w^ith  resignation  rather  than 
exultation.  To  see  them  so  humble  and  modest,  no  one 
w^ould  have  supposed  them  the  objects  of  such  an  ovation. 
They  were  religious,  of  grave  but  amiable  countenance, 
with  eyes  suiFused  by  emotion,  and  apparently  absorbed 
in  thought.  Nor  was  there  need  to  be  surprised  at  their 
abstracted  appearance ;  for  these  religious  were  Jesuits, 
and  the  town  which  received  them  with  joyful  acclama- 
tions was  Pombal — Pombal,  the  marquisate  of  Sebastian 
de  Carvalho,  the  unrelenting  persecutor  of  the  sons  of 
Ignatius — Pombal,  the  place  of  exile  where  that  wicked 
Minister  had  passed  the  last  years  of  his  life,  and  where 
he  died,  disgraced  by  the  King,  despised  by  the  nobles, 
and  hated  by  all.  It  was  Pombal  which,  by  this  religious 
and  popular  reception,  this  holiday,  bright  and  joyous  as 
a  family  feast,  celebrated  the  return  of  the  Jesuits  to  the 
diocese  of  Coimbra,  where  they  had  always  been  so  ten- 
derly loved  and  revered. 

In  the  month  of  December,  1830,  the  government  had 
restored  to  the  Society  of  Jesus  the  College  of  St.  An- 
thony, so  full  of  sweet  recollections. 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.    287 

"  St.  Francis  Xavier  had  not  lived  there,"  says  Father  Delvaux, 
in  his  cori-espondencc;  "but  it  possesses  a  monument  which  leads 
us  to  think  that  it  was  he  who  had  there  established  our  Fathers. 
In  the  interior  of  the  garden,  on  the  flank  of  a  mountain,  that 
of  the  Castle  of  Lisbon,  in  a  part  which,  in  the  time  of  the  saint, 
must  have  been  very  solitary,  in  a  grove  of  olives,  there  is  a  little 
ruined  chapel,  built  by  our  Fathers  in  honor  of  the  Apostle  of  the 
Indies,  on  the  spot  where  he  was  accustomed  to  retire  for  prayer. 
As  you  may  well  suppose,  we  lost  no  time  in  restoring  it,  and,  on 
the  2d  of  December,  we  had  the  happiness  of  celebrating  mass  in 
it,  and  of  giving  communion  to  all  the  members  of  the  college. 
The  chapel  being  too  confined  for  solemn  functions,  we  celebrated 
the  high  mass  and  vespers  at  the  college  church,  where  we  heard 
a  most  touching  sermon  by  a  former  bishop  of  Cochin.  Such  mo- 
ments are  worth  recollecting." 

The  Fathers  had  reaped  such  happy  results  from  their 
apostolic  zeal,  that  the  Patriarch  of  Lisbon  gave  them  a 
public  testimony  of  his  admiration  and  gratitude.  They 
received  many  postulants;  their  number  increased,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Coimbra  solicited  their  return  to  his  episcopal 
city.  He  applied  to  the  government  for  the  restoration 
of  their  former  college  in  Coimbra,  once  so  celebrated. 
The  Archbishop  of  Evora,  the  Director  of  Schools,  sup- 
ported the  application,  and,  on  the  9th  of  January,  1832, 
Don  Miijuel  signed  the  decree  of  restoration. 

On  the  14th  of  February,  Father  Delvaux,  the  Superior, 
with  Fathers  Palavicini,  Ponty,  and  Martin,  accompanied 
by  two  Brothers,  started  for  Coimbra.  The  bishop  had 
ordered  his  clergy  to  receive  them,  on  their  passage,  with 
all  possible  honor,  to  make  up  for  the  ignominy  which 
their  former  brethren  had  received  under  the  detested 
government  of  Carvalho,  and  the  clergy,  the  magistrates, 
the  people,  hastened  to  comply  with  the  invitation,  for 
this  reparation  was  their  ardent  desire.  Pombal  was  the 
first  parish  of  the  diocese  on  leaving  Lisbon,  hence  it  was 


288  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

tbe  first  to  make  the  ovation.  But  let  us  hear  Father 
Delvaux  as,  in  a  letter  dated  March  6th,  1832,  he  ex- 
presses the  emotions  which  he  exDerienced  in  this  striking 
manifestation  of  Providence  : 

"We  were  received  with  the  ringing  of  bells,  complimented,  and 
escorted  by  the  principal  curate  and  all  the  clergy.  The  church, 
where  two  of  our  Fathers  went  to  say  mass,  was  lighted  up  as  for 
a  great  solemnity.  As  for  myself,  moved  by  feelings  which  I  can 
not  express,  I  had  stolen  away,  with  a  Father  and  a  Brother  as 
companions,  and  had  hastened  to  the  church  of  the  Franciscans, 
to  offer  up  my  prayers  by  the  tomb  of  the  Marquis;  but  the  un- 
fortunate man  has  no  tomb.  Not  far  from  the  high  altar  was  a 
bier,  covered  with  a  sorry  pall,  on  which,  the  Father-Guardian 
told  me,  the  coffin  of  the  Marquis  still  remained.  Since  May  5th, 
1782,  he  has  waited  in  vain  for  the  rites  of  sepulture. 

"  I  can  not  tell  you  what  I  felt  in  offering  up  the  victim  of  pro- 
pitiation— the  Lamb  of  God  who  prayed  for  his  executioners — for 
the  repose  of  the  soul  of  Sebastian  de  Carvalho,  Marquis  de  Pom- 
bal,  present  before  me.  Fifty  years  had  he  been  waiting  there 
for  the  return  from  exile  of  the  society  which  he  had  so  cruelly 
banished,  and  the  restoration  of  which  he  had  himself  pre- 
dicted.* 

"While  I  was  fulfilling  this  pious  duty,  the  triumph  which  they 
wished  us  to  share,  or,  rather,  endure,  was  resounding  through 
the  city  and  environs.  All  the  bells  were  ringing  their  loudest, 
and  a  procession  came  to  escort  our  Fathers  to  the  church,  which 
was  brilliantly  illuminated.     It  was  like  a  dream. 

"  It  is  with  truth,  then,  that  I  can  say  that  the  first  thing  done 
by  the  society,  on  its  solemn  reentrance  into  Coimbra,  was  to  cele- 
brate a  requiem  mass,  presente  cadavere,  for  the  soul  of  him  who 
had  proscribed  it,  and  in  the  very  place  where  he  had  spent  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  himself  proscribed,  exiled,  and  condemned 
to  death.     What  a  chain  of  events  was  necessary  to  bring  about 

*  After  having  imprisoned  a  part  of  the  Fathers,  and  ignoniin- 
iously  expelled  the  others,  he  remarked  :  "  The  society  will  one  day 
return,  but  will  find  it  difficult  to  rebuild  its  nest."  The  details 
which  we  have  given  above  are  taken  from  authentic  documents, 
for  copies  of  which  we  have  been  iudebtad  to  Rev.  P.  de  Montezon. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN-    ROOTIIAAN.        289 

such  a  coincidence!  When  I  had  left  Pombal,  I  scarcely  knew 
whether  it  was  a  di'eam  or  a  reality.  Tliat  bier,  that  name,  Se- 
bastian, pronounced  in  the  prayer!  the  parish  bells  ringing  for 
the  return  of  the  Jesuits — all  at  one  and  the  same  time!  I  be- 
lieve that  I  shall  never  forget  it ! " 

Can  any  thing  be  more  beautiful,  more  sublime,  or 
more  touching  than  the  heroic  generosity  of  those  sons 
of  Ignatius,  eluding  the  triumph  prepared  for  them,  to  go 
and  pray  by  the  deserted  remains  of  him  who  was  their 
most  cruel  and  unscrupulous  enemy,  their  most  relentless 
persecutor?  It  is  one  of  the  brightest  pages  in  the  glori- 
ous history  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

And  now  shall  we  explain  the  reasons  for  this  long  de- 
lay in  the  funeral  obsequies  of  Pombal.  It  is  one  of 
those  events  so  striking  in  its  lessons  that  it  can  not  be 
passed  over  in  silence. 

In  the  time  of  liis  power,  Sebastian  de  Carvalho  was 
the  enemy  of  the  old  nobility,  because  it  surpassed  his 
own  family  in  distinction  and  ancestral  honor.  The  Mar- 
quis Ponte  de  Lima  was  one  of  the  victims  of  this  jeal- 
ousy, and  expired  a  prisoner  in  the  fort  which  guards  the 
entrance  to  the  Douro.  The  son  demanded  the  body,  for 
interment  in  the  tomb  of  the  family  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Laurence.  Pombal  refused!  "He  who  dies  in  the 
royal  disgrace  does  not  merit  such  honor,"  said  the  bar- 
barous Minister.  On  the  death  of  Joseph  I,  the  royal 
disgrace  fell  upon  him  who,  but  the  day  before,  was  so 
insolent  in  his  power,  and  the  Marquis  Ponte  de  Lima 
succeeded  him  in  the  ministry. 

Five  years  later,  the  aged  Pombal  expired,  leading  or- 
ders that  his  remains  should  be  transported  to  Oeyras, 
and  there  buried  with  the  rest  of  his  family,  in  the 
Church  of  Nostra  Senliora  das  3ferces,  where  a  magnifi- 
cent tomb  had  been  previously  erected  for  him.  But 
when  his  son  sought  the  required  permission  for  his   re- 


290  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

moval,  Ponte  de  Lima  had  his  turn — he  refused.  The 
hatred  incurred  by  Pombal,  in  his  lifetime,  was  so  lasting 
and  intense,  that,  for  several  years,  the  government  op- 
posed the  removal  of  his  remains,  which  lay  there  in  a 
corner  of  the  Franciscan  church,  waiting  in  vain  for  the 
sepulture  which  was  so  pitilessly  refused  ;  and  when,  as 
time  passed  by,  the  hatred  diminished,  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  body  was  forgotten,  apparently,  and  waited,  still 
waited. 

This  is  an  historical  fact 

This  forgetfulness  might  seem  incredible,  did  we  not 
remember  how  Providence  orders  events.  The  remains 
of  this  implacable  enemy  of  the  Church  and  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus,  lying  there  deserted,  covered  by  an  old 
pall,  worm-eaten  and  covered  with  dust;  those  Jesuits 
coming,  as  it  were,  accidentally,  to  oflfer  the  holy  sacrifice 
upon  the  abandoned  corpse  of  their  executioner;  these 
are  events  where  the  finger  of  God  is  seen  !  Plis  Provi- 
dence is  there,  and  its  lessons  are  admirable !  The  So- 
ciety of  Jesus  only  gives  a  new  proof  of  its  love  for  its 
enemies,  but  that  proof  is  sublime  !  *  This  is  the  venge- 
ance which  pleases  the  hearts  of  those  Jesuits,  who,  for 
three  centuries,  have  been  the  bugbears  of  little  men  and 
great  children. 


*  The  prayers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  doubtless,  procured  the 
conversion  of  their  persecutor  in  his  last  moments,  for  the  Bishop 
of  Coimbra,  released  from  Fort  St.  Julian,  where  he  had  been  in- 
carcerated, on  returning  to  his  diocese,  in  passing  through  the 
town  of  Ponibal,  saw  the  humbled  Minister  prostrate  himself  at 
his  feet,  suiug  for  pardon,  aud  shedding  a  flood  of  tears,  which 
must,  indeed,  have  been  bitter.  Strange  to  relate,  Pombal  pos- 
sessed two  magnificent  reliquaries  containing,  the  one,  a  relic  of  St. 
Ignatius  of  Loyola,  the  other,  one  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  which  he 
kept  in  the  private  chapel  of  his  palace  at  Lisbon.  These  were  al- 
ways preserved  in  the  same  place,  where,  on  their  return,  the  Jes- 
uits had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  and  honoring  them. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        291 

After  the  Fathers  liad  said  mass  in  the  paroeliial 
church  of  Pombal,  they  were  escorted  by  the  clergy  to 
their  hotel,  amid  the  serried  crowds  of  people.  The 
humble  religious  thought  that,  in  leaving  the  town,  they 
would  escape  these  embarrassing  honors,  but  they  were 
mistaken  ;  for,  wherever  they  went  in  that  diocese  which 
had  so  long  desired  them,  their  journey  was  a  triumphal 
ovation.  The  same  night,  at  Condeixa,  they  found  the 
Archbishop  of  Evora,  who  had  come  forth  to  meet  them, 
and  be  their  escort  to  Coimbra,  from  which  they  were  dis- 
tant two  leagues,  and  where  they  made  a  solemn  entry  on 
the  18th  of  February,  the  feast-day  of  St.  Theotonio, 
patron  of  the  city  and  diocese.  This  entry  was,  indeed, 
solemn,  having  been  arranged  by  the  Archbishop  of  Evora, 
the  Bishop  of  Coimbra,  the  Chancellor  of  the  University, 
and  the  Abbot  of  the  great  Monastery  of  Santa-Cruz. 
It  was  to  the  church  of  this  monastery  that  the  Jesuits 
were  conducted  on  their  arrival,  escorted  by  the  prelates, 
the  clergy,  the  civil  and  military  authorities,  and  an  im- 
mense crowd,  eager  to  see  and  contemplate  those  whose 
former  brethren  had  been  the  honor  and  glory  of  the 
place.  After  their  visit  to  the  church,  the  Fathers  were 
installed  in  their  own  residence. 

Father  Roothaan,  on  learning  the  brilliant  reparation 
which  had  thus  been  tendered  to  the  society,  on  its  return 
to  a  diocese  where  it  had  left  such  glorious  and  touchinjr 
mementos,  wrote  to  those  who  had  been  the  recipients  of 
the  ovation:  "//osaw?zas  to-day;  be  humble  !  To-morrow, 
perhaps,  it  will  be,  ^tolle,  crucifge.' ^'  The  advice  was 
prophetical. 

Don  Pedro  w^as  contesting  the  throne  with  his  brother, 
Don  Miguel.  To  raise  an  army,  he  had  collected  all  the 
exiles  of  Europe,  then  very  numerous,  all  outlaws  from  jus- 
tice, all  the  vagabonds  of  every  race  and  nation,  who  only 
csked  for  pillage,  and  who  would  recoil  from  no  excess.    The 


292  HISTORY   OP   THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS. 

war,  like  all  other  civil  wars,  was  terrible  in  its  immediate 
consequences,  as  in  the  divisions  which  it  caused  in  fami- 
lies. To  this  scourge  was  added  another,  the  cholera, 
which  raged  with  desolating  effect  throughout  the  country. 
Fear  seemed  to  paralyze  the  energies  of  the  people  ;  rich 
and  poor  seemed  equally  powerless  in  presence  of  so  many 
dying  and  dead  around  them.  The  Count  and  Countess 
of  Oliveira  were  among  the  first  victims  of  the  epidemic. 

The  Jesuits  hasten  to  the  scene  of  suffering.  They  are 
found  in  the  hospitals,  in  the  prisons,  in  the  hovels  of  the 
poor,  wherever  there  are  sick  to  relieve,  or  dying  to  save 
for  eternity.  For  six  long  months  they  devote  themselves, 
night  and  day,  with  an  inexhaustible  charity,  an  indefati- 
gable zeal,  an  heroic  abnegation.  At  Coimbra,  the  typhus 
fever  succeeds  the  cholera,  and  attacks  all  the  Fathers  in 
their  incomparable  charity.  Two  succumb  to  the  disease; 
they  are  Fathers  Francart  and  Namkin. 

The  war  still  continued  between  the  Pedristas,  or  Con- 
stitutionalists, and  the  Migitelistas,  or  Royalists.  The 
Jesuits  held  themselves  aloof  from  both,  and  prayed  for 
all.  On  the  24th  of  July,  1833,  the  army  of  Don  Pedro 
entered  Lisbon,  and  its  general,  the  Marquis  de  Villaflor, 
assured  the  Jesuits  of  his  protection.  Don  Pedro  had 
already  written  to  them,  asking  them  to  espouse  his  cause, 
and  to  deliver  to  him  Lisbon  and  Coimbra.  As  the  price 
of  their  cooperation,  he  promised  the  reestablishment  of 
the  society  throughout  the  kingdom,  the  primatial  Arch- 
bishopric of  Braga,^^  the  spiritual  direction  of  his  daugh- 
ter, the  Queen  Donna  Maria  II,  and,  besides,  wealth,  credit, 
and  whatever  else  they  could  require.  It  is  clear  that  he 
did  not  quite  understand  a  Jesuit  after  the  fashion  of  St. 
Ignatius;   he  only  knew  him  as  painted  by  the  Liberals. 

*  M.  Cretineau  Joly  says  Prague,  but  this  iliust  be  a  typographical 
error. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        293 

The  letter  of  the  Prince  had  not  yet  been  sent  to  the 
Fathers,  when  it  was  rendered  useless  by  the  capture  of 
Lisbon.  Nevertheless,  persuaded  that  he  could  have  no 
better  mediators  between  himself  and  his  brother,  Don 
Pedro  tried  to  conciliate  them,  and  attach  them  to  himself. 
The  Duke  of  Palmella  promised  them  the  favor  of  the 
government,  if  they  would  remain  in  the  capital,  and  not 
take  refu<2:e  in  the  interior  of  the  kingdom.  The  Jesuits 
answered  that  they  were  in  Lisbon  and  Coimbra  by  order 
of  their  General,  and  that  force  alone  could  prevent  them 
from  remaining.  This  calmed  the  fears  of  the  Prince,  and 
the  Duke  of  Terceira  joined  his  promises  of  protection  to 
those  of  the  Duke  of  Palmella.  But  Don  Pedro  had 
opened  the  doors  of  all  the  prisons,  and  the  undisciplined 
bands  of  foreigners  under  his  standard,  seeing  themselves 
so  reinforced,  carried  death  and  devastation  into  every 
quarter  of  the  unhappy  city.  The  only  power  capable  of 
arresting  these  disorders  lay  in  the  army  of  Don  Miguel. 

On  the  29th  of  July,  the  Pedristas  suddenly  made  a 
descent  on  the  house  of  Saint  Anthony,  with  savage  cries 
of  death  and  pillage.  They  penetrated  to  the  interior, 
forced  the  doors,  insulted  the  Jesuits,  and  were  about  to 
lay  violent  hands  on  Father  More,  when  suddenly  one  of 
the  party  seized  him  with  one  hand,  while  with  the  other 
he  beat  back  his  companions,  and  then,  casting  himself  at 
the  feet  of  the  religious,  exclaimed,  "  Father,  you  are 
my  benefactor;  to  you  I  owe  my  life,  which  you  saved 
while  I  lay  in  prison  ! "  The  Pedristas,  touched  at  the 
sight  of  this  spectacle,  withdrew,  full  of  respect  for  those 
Jesuits,  whom,  a  few  minutes  before,  they  had  devoted  to 
death. 

Order  was  not  easily   restored  under  the  sway  of   the 

Constitutionalists.     The  revolution  was  too  much  for  Don 

Pedro,  and  that  unhappy  Prince  saw  himself  obliged  to 

sanction,  daily,   the  most   crying  injustice    and   the   most 

62 


294  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

shameful  iniquity.  By  his  orders,  CardinalJustiniani  was 
commanded  to  leave  the  kingdom  within  three  days,  and 
all  relations  with  the  Holy  See  interrupted.  The  Orato- 
rians  were  expelled  from  their  houses,  priests  were  mur- 
dered, convents  profaned,  and  churches  were  pillaged. 
The  Jesuits  continued  to  refuse  a  share  in  his  political 
views.  They  rejected  his  propositions  and  his  conditional 
promises;  they  were  treated  as  enemies,  and  were  saved 
from  death  by  an  Englishman,  who  received  them  on 
board  his  vessel.  Those  of  Coimbra,  as  well  as  they  of 
Lisbon,  remained  faithful  to  the  Holy  See.  The  Consti- 
tutionalists saw,  in  their  fidelity,  the  reason  of  the  resist- 
ance of  the  other  religious  orders,  and  Don  Pedro  decreed 
their  expulsion  on  the  24th  of  May,  1834. 

They  were  conducted  on  foot  from  Coimbra  to  Lis- 
bon, a  distance  of  forty  leagues,  treated  like  malefactors, 
guarded  by  a  detachment  of  soldiers,  who  could  not  re- 
frain from  tears,  and  surrounded,  in  every  town  which 
they  traversed,  by  a  weeping  crowd,  who,  on  their  knees, 
begged  a  farewell  blessing.  Father  Roothaan  had  truly 
said,  "  To-day,  hosannas  ;  to-morrow,  tolle^  crucifigeJ'^  The 
road  on  which  they  now  walked  as  criminals,  had  seen 
them  pass  in  triumph,  but  two  years  before. 

Arrived  at  Lisbon,  by  a  refinement  of  cruelty  worthy  of 
a  revolutionary  government,  they  were  to  have  been  con- 
fined in  Fort  St.  Julian,  which  had  been  the  living  tomb 
of  so  many  of  their  holy  predecessors.  Providence  or- 
dered it  otherwise.  We  have  seen  that  the  Provincial  of 
France  had  placed  this  little  colony  of  laborers  under  the 
protection  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Indies.  Father 
Delvaux  shall  tell  us  the  result  of  his  powerful  protection  : 

"On  the  24th  of  July,  1833,  the  cla}^  on  which  Lisbon  was  cap- 
tured by  the  army  of  Don  Pedro,  being  caught  unprepared  in  that 
city,  and  being  responsible  for  the  safety  of  the  Fathers  and  nov- 
ices, I  addressed  myself  to  a  pious  and  noble  lady,  whom  Provi- 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER   JOHN    ROOTHAAN.       295 

dence — let  me  say  St.  Francis  Xavier — had  established  close  to 
our  residence,  in  readiness  for  this  occasion.  This  is  not  conjec- 
ture; it  is  history. 

"There  was  only  a  partition-wall  between  our  garden  and  that 
of  the  i^alace  of  the  Marquis  of  Ponte  de  Lima,  and  at  the  bottom 
of  the  alley  which  bordered  the  College  of  St.  Anthony,  our  back 
entrance  confronted  that  of  our  neighbors  garden.  I  went  to  ask 
the  Marchioness,  for  she  was  a  widow,  to  receive  that  same  night 
all  the  inmates  of  the  college.  The  Marchioness,  and  all  her  fam- 
ily,* showed  the  greatest  willingness,  and  a  charity  which  was 
altogether  religious,  and  the  transfer  was  accomplished  before 
nightfall.  AVe  were  scarcely  established  in  our  refuge,  when  the 
noble  lady  went  to  seek  a  magnificent  reliquary,  around  which 
she  caused  candles  to  be  lighted,  and  then  kneeling  down,  invited 
us  to  venerate  St.  Francis  Xavier,  and  to  entreat  his  protection 
for  Portugal.  It  was  a  i-elic  of  the  Saint,  and  one  of  the  most 
valuable  that  exists.  I  have  seen  none  so  large,  excepting  the 
arm  which  is  preserved  at  the  Gesu,  in  Rome.  The  pious  Mar- 
chioness would  then  have  me  bless  her  and  all  her  family,  with 
the  holy  relic.  I  did  so,  and  I  blessed,  too,  that  other  family  there 
present — the  family  of  the  Saint  himself — and  with  what  feeling, 
you  may  imagine  more  easily  than  I  can  express.  Up  to  this 
time  we  had  remained  in  ignorance  of  this  treasure,  at  our  very 
gates.  We  were  to  know  it  only  in  the  hour  of  peril;  and  we 
love  to  think  that  our  dear  Saint  was  there  to  save  then,  and  dur- 
ing a  whole  year  of  revolution,  his  brethren  of  Lisbon  and  Co- 
imbra.  By  the  downfall  of  the  government,  which  had  recalled 
it,  the  society  fell  at  once  under  the  old  law  of  proscription,  by 
which  any  one  of  its  members  found  within  the  boundaries  of 
Portugal,  was  condemned  to  death,  and  yet  not  one  hair  of  our 
heads  was  lost. 

"  We  owed  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  to  this  family,  the  manifest 
instrument  of  Divine  Providence  in  our  regard,  and,  in  token  of 
our  sentiments,  we  determined  to  offer  them  our  precious  painting, 
entreating  tliat  it  might  find  a  place  beside  the  relics  which  we 
had  been  allowed  to  honor.  It  was  an  act  of  gratitude,  but  it  was, 
also,  one  of  deep  and  tender  devotion  to  the  portrait  of  our  Father, 
which  we  saw  exposed,  like  ourselves,  on  a  troubled  ocean,  of  which 
no  one  could  see  the  shore.     It  had  not  left  us ;  we  had  carried  it 

*Her  eldest  son  was  serving  in  the  army  of  Don  Pedro. 


296  HISTORY   OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

in  our  hands  from  our  college  to  the  palace  of  the  Marchioness, 
and  we  placed  it  next  to  the  blessed  relics.  It  was  there  that  we 
took  a  farewell  embrace  of  each  other  before  separating  on  our  dif- 
ferent roads  to  exile.  That  day  was  the  festival  of  St.  James,  the 
patron  of  Portugal  as  well  as  of  Spain.  Not  twenty-four  hours 
after  our  departure,  the  Marchioness  received  an  order  inviting  us  to 
retire  to  the  Convent  of  St.  Dominic,  which,  as  was  afterward  seen, 
was  to  have  been  our  prison.  St.  Francis  Xavier  would  not  have 
it  so,  at  least  for  that  portion  of  his  family." 

These  letters,  of  which  we  have  here  given  some  extracts, 
were  not  intended  for  publication.  Written  in  the  language 
of  the  heart,  they  show  us  the  Jesuit  as  he  is,  and  not  as 
he  is  represented  by  the  enemies  of  the  society. 

VI. 

Spain  was  in  as  sreat  a  ferment  as  Portusral.  At  his 
death,  Ferdinand  VII  had  willed  the  crown  to  his  daughter, 
in  spite  of  the  Salic  laws,  which  called  his  brother,  Don 
Carlos,  to  the  throne.  The  latter  took  up  arms  to  sustain 
his  rights,  while  the  adherents  of  Queen  Christina  rose  to 
defend  those  of  Isabella.  The  last  admitted  to  their 
ranks  all  the  revolutionists  of  Europe,  by  whom  they  were 
soon  entirely  controlled.  It  was  no  longer  the  Queen 
dowager  who  ruled  in  the  name  of  her  daughter  ;  it  was 
the  revolution.  Clubs  were  organized,  the  press  declared 
free,  and  the  coalition  against  the  Church  made  alarming 
progress. 

The  Jesuits  foresaw  the  approaching  storm  without  the 
hope  of  withstanding  it.  They  soon  learned  that  the  secret 
societies  had  decreed  the  destruction  of  all  relioious  orders, 
and  the  death  of  their  priests,  commencing  with  themselves. 
To  inaugurate  this  plan,  a  pretext  was  needed.  The 
cholera  supplied  the  want. 

On  the  appearance  of  this  terrible  scourge,  the  Queen 
had  taken  flight,  closely  followed  by  the  philanthropic 
apostles    of   liberty,  and    the    people,  seeing    themselves 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        297 

abandoned  by  those  who  owed  them  protection,  gave  them- 
selves up  to  the  most  frantic  terror. 

This  was  the  auspicious  moment.  The  demagogues  set 
afloat  those  same  absurd  reports  which  had  been  so  fre- 
quentl}'^  employed  against  the  Jesuits.  The  Carlists,  the 
monks,  and  especially  the  Jesuits,  were  accused  of  poison- 
ing the  fountains.  It  w'as  the  second  edition  of  the  fable 
invented  at  Paris  in  1832.  The  police  arrested  some 
children  who  were  throwing  poison  in  the  streets  by  the 
handfuls. 

"  What  are  you  doing  there?  " 

"Amusing  ourselves.' 

"At  what?" 

"Scattering  this  powder  in  the  street." 

"Where  did  you  get  it?" 

"  From  the  Jesuits." 

"And  w^ho  told  you  to  make  this  use  of  it?" 

"  The  Jesuits." 

The  inquiry  was  made  in  such  a  tone  as  to  arrest  the 
attention  of  the  passers-by  and  of  the  occupants  of  the 
neighboring  shops,  so  as  to  excite  the  indignation  of  the 
populace.  During  the  night  of  the  16th  of  July,  the  rev- 
olutionary agents  put  in  circulation  the  most  fearful  ru- 
mors. They  pretended  to  have  found  papers  full  of  ar- 
senic in  the  public  fountains,  and  showed  some  packages 
in  proof  of  their  assertion,  while  the  children,  who  were 
accused  of  placing  them  there,  asserted  that  they  had  re- 
ceived them  from  the  Jesuits.  The  proof  was  complete ; 
the  Jesuits  wished  the  death  of  the  people. 

The  excitement  continued.  It  was  necessary  to  believe, 
or  affect  to  believe,  those  Fathers  so  beloved,  so  revered, 
guilty  of  the  odious  charge,  or  to  run  the  risk  of  the 
death  which  the  authorities  declared  them  to  have  merited. 
The  frenzy  increased  with  every  hour,  until  men  were  be- 
side themselves  with  terror,  and,  on  the  17th,  at  three 
62* 


298  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  mob,  in  conjunction  with  the 
national  guards,  ran  frantically  about  the  streets,  shouting, 
'■'■Poison!  Death  to  the  Jesuits!  Long  live  the  Republic!  ^^ 
The  doors  of  the  Imperial  College,  closed  by  order  of  the 
Superior,  fall  beneath  the  axes  of  the  assailants.  Some 
of  the  Fathers  escape;  others  take  refuge  -in  the  private 
chapel,  and  prepare  for  the  death  which  seems  to  await 
them.  They  hear  the  shouts  of  the  ^^  descamisados,"^ 
'■'•Death  to  priests  and  monies!^'  '^^ Hurrah  for  liberty !^^ 
while  their  leaders  suggest  even  more:  "Down  with  re- 
ligion !  Down  with  God  !  Death  to  all  priests,  monks,  and 
Jesuits,  and  hurrah  for  hell ! '' 

The  mob  pause,  as  if,  in  those  cries,  they  had,  for  a 
moment,  glanced  to  the  very  depth  of  the  abyss  into  which 
they  are  plunging.  The  descamisados  see  that  there  is  no 
time  to  lose.  They  attack,  at  once,  the  church  and  sem- 
inary. Some  shots  are  heard,  and  the  leaders  exclaim, 
"  The  Jesuits  fire  on  the  people  !  Death  to  the  Jesuits  !  " 
At  these  words,  the  mob,  throwing  aside  all  doubt  and 
hesitation,  is  seized  with  a  vertigo.  Drunk  with  fury,  and 
thirsting  for  vengeance,  it  clamors  for  the  blood  of  the 
Jesuits. 

Durino;  this  horrible  tumult  and  these  sacrilegious 
shouts,  the  students  of  the  college  were  assembled  around 
Father  Edward  de  Carassa,  in  the  common  hall,  where, 
weeping  and  praying,  they  awaited  their  death.  The 
ruffians  made  their  appearance,  and  a  general  cry  of 
alarm  was  heard  from  the  children.  A  national  guard — 
perhaps  himself  a  father — reassured  them,  saying  that  no 
harm  should  be  done  to  them,  and  that  not  a  Jesuit 
should  bleed  until  the  students  were  all  removed;   but  the 

*In  France,  the  radicals  of  '93  called  themselves  sans-culottes 
(breechless) ;  in  Spain,  they  went  further,  and  styled  themselves 
descamisadoH  (shirtless.)  Our  readers  must  excuse  the  expressions — 
we  are  not  inventing,  we  are  only  writing  history. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER   JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        299 

descamisados  l.iuirhcd  at  such  fine  feelino-s  and  at  once 
stretched  the  Brother-coadjutor,  Juan  Ruedas,  a  lifeless 
corpse  at  their  feet.  The  Prefect  of  Studies,  Dominic 
Barran,  was  killed  in  the  very  midst  of  his  pupils.  Fa- 
thers Buxons,  Gamier,  Sancho,  Casto  Fernandez,  Urreta, 
and  Barba  also  fell  victims  to  the  popular  frenzy. 

The  blood  of  so  many  martyrs  had  not  satiated  their 
thirst.  More  was  required.  They  seized  Father  Jose 
Fernandez,  cut  off  his  cheek  and  one  of  his  ears,  and 
dragged  him  through  the  streets,  with  blows  and  insults, 
to  which  the  holy  religious  responded  only  by  prayers  for 
his  assailants.  Father  Celedonio  Unanue  was  about  to 
undergo  the  same  fate,  but  one  of  the  mob  thrusting  at 
him  with  his  bayonet,  the  blow  turned  aside,  and  the  in- 
tended victim  was  seized  by  a  compassionate  soldier,  car- 
ried off,  and  rescued  from  certain  death.  At  Father  Sauri 
the  stroke  was  better  aimed.     His  soul  fled  to  heaven. 

Father  Artigas,  Brother  Manuel  Ostolosa,  and  the  Scho- 
lastic, M.  Dumont,  were  shot  down  at  the  doors  of  the 
college,  and  their  naked  bodies  exposed  to  the  licentious 
gaze  of  a  drunken  mob. 

Nor  were  these  crimes  and  sacrilegious  murders  suf- 
ficient for  these  ruffians.  They  rushed  pellmell  into  the 
interior  of  the  building,  and  penetrated  to  the  domestic 
chapel  of  the  Imperial  College,  ^  In  that  chapel  there  was 
a  young  Jesuit,  Juan-Gregorio  JMuiioz,  a  brother  of  the 
Duke  de  Bianzares,  the  husband  of  Queen  Christina,  He 
had  taken  refuge  there,  to  pray,  with  his  brethren,  in 
expectation  of  their  common  fate,  A  descamisado  was 
searchinci:  for  him,  and  said  to  Father  de  Carassa: 

"If  you  will  give  up  Juan-Gregorio  Muiioz,  you  shall 
all  receive  better  treatment." 

The  young  Jesuit,  hearing  his  Yiame  pronounced,  stepped 
forward,  and  the  radical,  recognizing  him,  said,  "  Do  not 
be  afraid ;   I  am  here  to  save  your  life.     I  owe  mine  to 


300  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

your  brother,  and  am  deliglited  to  be  able  to  discharge 
the  debt." 

"  I  shall  never  desert  my  brethren,''  said  the  intrepid 
youth.  '■'■Save  them  with  me,  or  with  them  kill  me.  Our 
fate  is  the  same." 

The  massacre  was  so  well  concerted  that  the  murderers 
did  not  advance.  The}"^  w^aited  there  in  front  of  their 
victims  for  the  signal  of  death,  which  their  leader  him- 
self  seemed  to  expect  from  another.  All  at  once,  one 
of  the  Queen's  life-guards  appeared,  with  an  order  to  stop 
the  butchery^  and  Don  Jose  Martinez  de  San-Martino, 
the  Captain-General,  without  being  moved  by  the  carnage 
which  he  had  traversed,  without  addressing  a  single  re- 
proach to  the  assassins  of  so  many  martyrs,  addressed  the 
Fathers  w^ith  words  of  outrage,  charging  them  with  hav- 
ing poisoned  the  public  fountains.  In  turning  aside,  he 
pointed  out  to  the  descamisados  a  little  vial  which  lay 
in  his  way,  and  saying  that  it  contained  some  virulent 
poison,  claimed  it  as  a  convincing  proof  of  the  guilt  of 
the  Fathers;   but  one  of  them  cried  out: 

"  That  vial  belongs  to  me.  It  dropped  from  my  pocket, 
and  its  contents  are  so  harmless  that,  if  you  will  return  it, 
I  shall  gladly  drink  them  off  before  you." 

Don  Martinez  turned  pale  with  confusion,  restored  the 
vial  to  the  claimant,  without  exacting  the  proffered  test, 
and  withdrew,  giving  the  radicals  full  permission  to  con- 
tinue their  work  of  sacrilegious  devastation.  Murder,  in- 
deed, was  forbidden,  thanks  to  the  noble  heroism  of  the 
young  Jesuit,  brother-in-law  to  the  Queen,  but  the  assas- 
sins compensated  themselves  by  a  wholesale  pillage  and 
destruction.  This  series  of  horrid  deeds  commenced  at 
three  o'clock,  and  not  before  seven  did  an  armed  force 
interpose  to  arrest  the  mob  and  suppress  its  violence.  The 
sanguinary  crowd  were  so  well  organized  that  they  stopped 
at  the  word,  and  turned  their  steps  to  the  convents  of  the 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        301 

Franciscans,  the  Dominicans,  and  the  Fathers  of  Mercy, 
where  they  renewed  the  same  deeds  of  fury,  without  fear 
of  interruption  from  the  authorities.  After  having  mur- 
dered fifteen  Jesuits,  they  succeeded  in  slaying  seven  Do- 
minicans, forty-four  Franciscans,  and  eight  Fathers  of 
Mercy,  by  the  sword,  by  fire,  by  drowning,  or  by  precip- 
itating them  from  the  roofs  of  their  houses  to  the  paved 
streets  beneath. 

On  the  19th  of  July,  1834,  after  the  funeral  of  the  mar- 
tyred victims,  Madrid  seemed  stupefied  at  sight  of  the 
sacrilegious  horrors  which  had  been  perpetrated  in  so 
Catholic  a  city.  It  could  scarcely  credit  those  sixty -four 
victims  of  the  insane  hate  and  inhuman  ferocity  of  the 
descamisados.  It  mourned  over  such  a  disaster,  such  a 
ruin,  and  it  mourned,  alas !  over  the  future,  for  it  believed 
in  Divine  justice,  and  it  felt  itself  guilty! 

On  that  same  day,  the  19th  of  July,  a  royal  decree  ap- 
peared, announcing  that  henceforth  all  tumults  should  be 
put  down  by  severe  measures  and  rigorous  chastisements; 
Don  Martinez  was  dismissed,  the  most  reckless  of  the 
descamisados  were  arrested,  peace  was  to  be  restored,  and 
every  thing  went  well — for  the  revolutionists.  This  party 
wished  the  abolition  of  the  religious  orders.  It  had 
needed  a  pretext,  which  was  now  at  hand,  for  it  could 
prove  their  unpopularity  by  the  massacres  of  July  17th, 
183-1.  The  monastic  orders  were  possessed  of  property, 
by  means  of  which  the  partisans  of  liberty  could  be  made 
rich.  It  was  very  desirable  to  suppress  the  proprietors, 
and  secure  the  property.  On  the  17th  of  July,  1835,  the 
Society  of  Jesus  was  abolished  throughout  Spain  by  a 
royal  decree,  which  assigned  no  reasons,  political  or  re- 
ligious. The  confiscation  of  its  property  was  the  all-suf- 
ficient ground.  Several  Fathers  took  refuge  in  the  other 
provinces  of  the  Order.  Some  retired  to  Loyola,  the 
only  house  which  was  left  in  the  possession  of  the  sons  of 


302  HISTORY    OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola.  Guipuscoa  was  occupied  by  the 
Carlists,  and  the  descamisados  havinir,  therefore,  no  au- 
thority  over  the  birthplace  of  the  holy  founder,  the  soci- 
ety was  enabled  to  establish  itself  therein,  collect  recruits, 
and  open  a  novitiate.  The  civil  war  rendered  the  Jesuits 
still  dearer  to  the  Carlists,  whose  sick  and  wounded  they 
nursed,  consoled,  encouraged,  and  prepared  for  death. 
Father  Onnane  was  confessor  to  Don  Carlos.  Father 
Puyal,  charged,  in  1824,  with  the  education  of  his  eldest 
son,  never  quitted  his  side.  These  two  Fathers  were  al- 
ways at  head-quarters,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  army. 

When  it  became  necessary  for  Don  Carlos  to  leave  Spain, 
the  Society  of  Jesus  reaped  the  consequences  of  his  favor. 
It  was  suppressed  in  Guipuscoa,  and  the  college  and 
novitiate  were  closed;  but,  by  a  special  disposition  of 
Divine  Providence,  the  fine  residence  of  Loyola  was  pre- 
served to  it,  where  some  of  the  Fathers  have  always  con- 
tinued to  reside,  the  hopes  and  pledges  of  a  brighter  future. 

YII. 

In  Belgium,  the  society  was  in  a  prosperous  condition, 
and  it  was  obliged  to  increase  the  number  of  its  colleges 
and  to  open  a  novitiate.  It  soon  obtained  entrance  into 
Holland,  where  the  sovereign  of  that  kingdom  permitted 
it  to  open  two  seminaries  for  Catholic  youth.  In  1835, 
through  the  zeal  and  efficient  aid  of  M.  Dubois-Fournier, 
it  opened  the  celebrated  College  of  Brugelette,  near  Ath, 
where  the  most  distinguished  French  families  sent  their 
sons  to  be  educated.  The  government  could  oblige  the 
Jesuits  to  close  their  collcires  in  France,  but  it  could  not 
prevent  parents  from  sending  their  children  out  of  the 
country  to  Passage,  Friburg,  and  Brugelette.  In  18-45, 
the  society  numbered,  in  Belgium  alone,  four  hundred 
and  fifty-four,  Fathers,  Scholastics,  Brothers,  and  Novices. 

In  England,  where  persecution  no  longer  restrained  their 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.   303 

zeal,  the  Jesuits  had  considerably  increased  the  number 
of  Catholics.  In  1835,  they  had  already  erected  eleven 
churches.  They  were  soon  allowed  to  engage  in  public 
education,  but  with  prudence,  and,  in  184:1,  they  opened 
a  college  at  Dublin,  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  whose  name  it  bore. 

In  Austria,  supported  by  imperial  favor,  they  worked 
with  greater  freedom.  The  bishops  sought  their  assist- 
ance, with  an  eagerness  to  which  they  could  not  always 
respond  according  to  their  desires.  They  occupied  the 
principal  pulpits,  where  they  were  listened  to- by  the  most 
influential  members  of  society;  they  were  in  the  hospitals, 
visiting  and  consoling  the  sick,  encouraging  and  strength- 
ening the  dying;  they  were  in  the  prisons,  soothing  the 
desperate  and  bringing  the  guilty  to  repentance;  they 
were  in  every  place  where  there  was  good  to  be  done  or 
glory  to  be  rendered  to  God. 

In  1831,  the  cholera  broke  out  in  Gallicia,  and  swept  off 
ninety-seven  thousand  inhabitants.  Although  the  Jesuits 
had  devoted  themselves  there,  accordins;  to  the  wont  of 
the  sons  of  Ignatius,  in  every  public  calamity,  only  one 
fell  a  victim  to  the  fatal  epidemic — Father  Kisiclewicz. 
While  tending  some  soldiers  struck  down  by  the  disease, 
he  himself  was  attacked,  in  the  midst  of  his  beloved 
patients,  and  took  his  flight  to  heaven.  This  providen- 
tial immunity  from  the  contagion  was  thus  alluded  to 
by  Father  Passerot,  Vicar-General  of  the  Kedemptorists 
in  Austria,  in  a  letter  to  Father  Nisard 

"I  congratulate  you,  Reverend  Father,  and  all  j'our  holy 
society,  on  tlie  marked  protection  accorded  to  you,  by  Divine 
Providence,  in  the  calamity  which  has  afflicted  your  country,  and 
is  now  threatening  ours.  But  was  it  not  proper  that  the  ex- 
terminating angel  should  respect  the  name  of  the  Lamb,  which 
you  bear,  as  much  as  of  old  he  did  the  blood  which  was  Ilis 
type?" 


304  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY   OP    JESUS. 

Providence  had  a  different  trial  in  store  for  the  society. 
On  the  night  of  the  3d  of  May,  the  lightning  struck  the 
College  of  Tyniec,  which  was  consumed  with  fearful  rapid- 
ity. The  citizens  recognized  but  one  evil  for  themselves 
in  this  calamity,  and  that  was  the  withdrawal  of  the  Fa- 
thers. They  saw  that  the  Jesuits,  deprived  of  their  resi- 
dence, would  be  obliged  to  seek  another  resting-place,  and 
this  was  a  sacrifice  which  they  could  not  accept.  "The 
cholera  has  impoverished  us,"  said  these  simple  souls; 
"but  the  Jesuits  love  poverty,  and,  loving  us,  will  share 
with  us  the  little  that  is  left.  Having  had  part  in  our 
tears  and  our  sufferings,  they  will  partake  of  our  wretched- 
ness until  we  can  build  for  them  another  college."  They 
cast  themselves  at  the  feet- of*  their  beloved  Fathers,  im- 
ploring them  to  remain.  Such  simple  love  could  not  meet 
with  a  refusal. 

In  1833,  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  visited  their  differ- 
ent houses,  expressing  his  gratitude  for  their  devotedness, 
and  assuring  them  of  the  continued  favor  of  their  Em- 
peror. In  the  following  year.  His  Imperial  Majesty  aug- 
mented the  number  of  their  colleges,  and  added  five 
thousand  florins  to  the  sum  allotted  to  them  by  the  state. 

In  Switzerland,  they  were  unmolested,  notwithstanding 
the  fermentation  caused  by  the  radical  faction.  Young 
Switzerland,  as  the  more  advanced  of  the  party  were 
called,  strove  its  best  to  propagate  communistic  doctrines, 
and  sometimes,  by  pillage,  reduced  them  to  practice.  In 
1843,  during  the  vacation,  one  of  the  Jesuit  pupils,  allow- 
ing himself  to  be  led  away  by  this  party,  took  part  in  the 
sacking  of  the  presbytery  at  Ardon.  The  authorities  of 
the  college  were  informed  of  this  conduct,  and,  on  his 
return,  at  the  commencement  of  classes,  refused  him  ad- 
mission. The  indignation  of  the  Liberals  was  instantly 
enkindled  against  those  who  were  capable  of  such  in- 
justice to  one  whose  only  fault  was  a  disregard  for  the 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER   JOHN   ROOTHAAN.        305 

proprietary  rights  of  others.  Complaints  were  made  to 
the  magistracy,  which  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
radicals,  and  the  Jesuits  were  invited  to  quit  the  Valais, 
there  beina:,  unfortunately,  no  reasonable  pretext  for  en- 
forcing their  departure.  The  invitation  was  not  enter- 
tained. They  were  then  required  to  submit  to  governmental 
inspection;  but  this,  too,  was  refused.  Young  Switzer- 
land had  recourse  to  violence.  It  rose  in  arms,  and,  on 
the  23d  of  May,  1844,  it  marched  on  Sion,  to  the  cry  of 
"Death  to  the  Jesuits!"  But  the  people  had  received 
intimation  of  the  project,  and  were  prepared  to  receive  the 
invaders. 

At  the  command  of  M.  de  Courten,  their  leader,  the 
Sionnese  rushed  to  the  encounter,  with  cries  of  "Hurrah 
for  the  Jesuits!"  and  drove  the  radicals  back  as  far  as 
the  defile  of  Trient.  There  a  final  combat  was  commenced, 
which  terminated  in  the  complete  defeat  of  the  radical 
forces.  In  Switzerland,  as  elsewhere,  the  Jesuits  were 
only  the  pretext.  Such  is  the  admission  of  a  radical 
journal,  in  1845:  "No  doubt,  the  Jesuits  are  our  worst 
enemies;  but  our  victory  would  not  be  complete,  even 
though  we  succeeded  in  destroying  the  last  of  the  sons  of 
Loyola.  There  is  another  power  that  desires  our  ruin, 
and  would  wish  to  bind  us  with  chains.  That  power  is 
the  Papacy!"  It  was,  then,  the  Catholic  Church  which 
was  in  question  ;  and  so  they  attacked  her  van-guard,  and 
diatribes,  calumny,  and  scorn  were  heaped  on  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  Civil  war  came  to  the  assistance  of  these  means; 
for  the  Catholics  took  up  arms,  and  met  force  with  force. 
The  radicals  hoped  that  parents  would  recall  their  chil- 
dren— that  no  mother  would  allow  her  son  to  remain  in  a 
country  in  the  throes  of  civil  war.  In  this  they  were 
mistaken.  More  than  one  mother  had  the  courage  to  write 
to  her  child:  "If  the  Jesuits  are  attacked,  you  must  de- 
fend them ;  if  they  are  expelled,  you  must  follow  them." 
63 


306  HISTORY  OP    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  1845,  the  leader  of  the  Catholic 
party,  Joseph  Leu,  was  murdered  in  his  bed.  The  radi- 
cals, stung  by  their  defeat,  avenged  themselves  by  assas- 
sination, and  then  spread  the  report  that  the  Jesuits  had 
killed  their  chief,  or  had  persuaded  him  to  allow  himself 
to  be  killed,  in  order  to  cast  odium  on  the  radicals,  and 
to  exasperate  the  Catholic  party  against  their  antagonists. 
But  the  real  murderer,  Jacob  Muller,  was  discovered,  and, 
after  confessing  his  crime,  expired  on  the  scaffold,  on  the 
31st  of  January,  1846. 

The  King  of  Piedmont  continued  to  favor  the  society. 
The  College  of  the  Nobles,  at  Turin,  had  only  its  chapel, 
no  church  beino;  attached  to  the  institution.  The  King; 
restored  to  them  that  of  the  Holy  Martyrs,  which,  for- 
merly theirs,  had  become  a  parochial  church  since  the 
suppression  of  the  Order.  The  adjoining  house,  once  their 
college,  was  also  returned  to  them.  The  University  of 
Genoa  had  taken  possession  of  the  old  college  of  the 
society  in  that  city.  Charles  Albert  wished  it  to  revert 
to  its  ancient  owners,  but  there  was  no  end  to  the  ob- 
jections and  difficulties  which  this  proposition  excited. 
The  University  found  itself  too  comfortably  lodged  to  be 
w^illing  to  turn  out  in  favor  of  a  society  which  it  regarded 
in  the  light  of  a  dangerous  rival.  The  King,  appreciat- 
ing the  motive  of  the  opposition  offered  by  the  University, 
solved  the  difficulty  by  saying:  "Since  I  can  not  find  a 
house  in  Genoa  for  the  Jesuits,  I  shall  give  them  my  own; 
to  that  no  one  can  object."  Accordingly,  the  Doria- 
Tursi  Palace,  called  Palazzo  della  Regina,  was  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Fathers. 

The  University  was  foiled,  and  the  revolutionary  party 
thought  it  prudent  to  wait,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  to  work 
secretly  to  their  end.  The  usual  methods  were  employed. 
The  Jesuits  were  said  to  have  the  Ministers  under  their 
thumb;    they  governed,   they  directed   every  thing;    the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.    307 

King  would  not  see,  and  when,  at  last,  he  should  open 
his  eyes,  it  would  be  too  late.  Charles  Albert  let  them 
say  on;  but,  finally,  yielding  somewhat  to  external  press- 
ure, he  listened  to  the  party  of  Italian  independence, 
which  daily  gained  ground,  and  sought  to  lead  the  mon- 
arch in  their  own  favorite  direction.  In  1846,  Charles 
Albert  promised  to  occupy  himself  with  the  question  of 
the  Jesuits — the  most  prominent  at  that  time — who  were 
represented  as  being  behind  the  age,  and  unfit  to  direct 
the  education  of  youth. 

So  thought  the  Piedmontese;  but  the  Romans  judged 
differently,  and  the  College  of  the  Propaganda,  called  also 
the  Urban  College  *  had  solicited  the  honor  of  being 
placed  under  their  direction.  Gregory  XVI,  yielding  to 
this  request,  as  exposed  by  Cardinal  Franzoni,  invested 
the  society  with  this  new  charge  by  a  brief,  bearing  date 
October  2d,  1836,  in  which  he  said: 

"We  are  persuaded,  in  common  with  our  Congregation  of  the 
Propaganda,  that  the  education  of  the  young  clergy  destined  to 
sow  the  seed  of  the  Gospel  in  foreign  countries,  and  to  water  with 
their  sweat  the  vineyard  of  our  Lord,  can  not  be  better  confided, 
for  the  greater  advantage  of  the  Church,  than  to  the  members  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus.  By  its  institute  it  is  specially  consecrated 
to  the  training  up  of  youth  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  in  science  and 
letters,  of  which  that  fear  is  the  beginning.  At  the  same  time, 
this  religious  Order  is  unceasingly  engaged  in  procuring  the 
glory  of  God  in  all  its  operations.  The  long  and  happy  experi- 
ence which,  since  the  origin  of  the  society,  even  to  our  own  day, 
the  Church  has  had  of  the  incontestable  fitness  of  the  Fathers  of 
this  Institute  in  directing  schools,  whether  those  of  the  laity  or 
of  the  clergy,  in  so  many  diflFerent  parts  of  the  world;  finally, 
the  honorable  and  unanimous  testimony  which  the  very  enemies 
of  the  Holy  See  and  of  the  Church,  constrained  by  the  evidence 
of  facts,  are  obliged  to  render  to  the  Society  of  Jesus  for  the  good 
education  which  it  imparts  to  youth — all  these  motives  induce  us 

*  In  memory  of  Pope  Urban  VIII,  its  founder. 


308  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

to  receive  with  faTor  the  request  which  your  Eminence  makea 
of  us  in  the  name  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda." 

The  States  of  the  Church  had  been  spared  in  the  ter- 
rible epidemic  which  had  made  so  many  victims  in  Europe, 
when,  suddenly,  it  was  announced  that  the  cholera  was  at 
the  gates  of  Rome.  It  was  in  the  month  of  August,  1837. 
Gregory  XVI  made  all  the  dispositions  which  prudence 
suggested.  Associations  for  relief  and  for  visits  of  charity 
were  organized,  infirmarians  enrolled,  ambulances  estab- 
lished in  the  different  quarters  of  the  city,  physicians  and 
apothecaries  appointed,  the  treasury  thrown  open  for  the 
required  expenses,  and  the  Jesuits  named  chaplains  for 
the  ambulances — every  thing  was  ready  for  the  dreaded 
scourge.  The  people  were  alarmed  at  the  sight  of  all 
these  precautions.  Cardinal  Odescalchi,  to  calm  their 
fears,  announced  a  procession,  with  a  view  to  disarm  the 
wrath  of  Heaven.  The  Sovereign  Pontiff  had  ordered  the 
Christian  Palladium  of  Rome — the  picture  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  at  St.  Mary  Major — to  be  publicly  transported  to 
the  Church  of  the  Gesii. 

This  announcement  brought  consolation  to  the  hearts 
of  the  Romans.  They  hastened  to  St.  Mary  Major.  The 
crowd,  sad,  but  resigned,  filled  the  square — waited,  in 
prayer,  the  appearance  of  the  venerated  image,  and  fol- 
lowed its  bearers.  Father  Roothaan,  surrounded  by  all 
his  religious,  advanced  in  front  of  the  Gesu,  to  meet  the 
procession,  and  received  from  the  hands  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  the  precious  deposit  thus  confided  to  his  care,  and 
which  was  to  remain  in  the  church  so  long  as  the  epi- 
demic continued.  There,  in  the  Church  of  the  Gesii,  the 
faithful  would  daily  come  to  implore  the  intercession  of 
the  Mother  of  Mercy. 

On  the  23d  of  August,  the  scourge  fell  on  all  quarters 
of  the  city  at  the  same  time.     The  religious  orders,  em- 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.         309 

ulatinii;  eacli  other  in  zeal  and  charity,  were  grand  in  their 
Felf-abnegation  and  devotedness,  and  very  few  of  their 
numbers  were  seized.  Of  the  Jesuits,  who,  to  the  num- 
ber of  three  hundred,  tended  the  sick,  night  and  day,  for 
two  months,  not  a  single  one  died.  On  the  11th  of  Oc- 
tober, the  scourge  disappeared,  and  the  only  care  tliat 
remained  was  for  the  orphans  which  it  had  made.  The 
public  generously  responded  to  the  appeal  of  Cardinal 
Odescalchi ;  and  Father  Roothaan  engaged,  on  the  part 
of  the  society,  to  support  twenty  of  the  number  at  San 
Stefano. 

In  the  following  year,  the  Cardinal-Vicar,  Charles  Odes- 
calchi, resigned  the  high  offices  with  which  he  was  charged 
at  the  Pontifical  court;  and,  on  the  8th  of  December, 
1838,  laying  down  the  Roman  purple,  entered  the  novi- 
tiate of  the  Society  of  Jesus  at  Modena.  He  was  fifty- 
two  years  of  age.  He  did  not  long  enjoy  the  happiness 
which  he  there  sought;  for,  on  the  17th  of  August,  1841, 
he  left  the  Society  of  Jesus  at  Modena  to  join  the  Society 
of  Jesus  in  heaven. 

On  the  31st  of  July,  1844,  the  Jesuits  returned  to 
Venice,  from  which  the  agitation  of  political  revolutions 
had  kept  them  excluded.  The  patriarch,  the  governor, 
the  clergy,  nobility,  and  people  went  to  meet  them,  in 
procession,  and  put  them  in  possession  of  their  church 
and  residence.  On  the  29th  of  March,  1845,  they  were 
equally  well  received  in  the  island  of  Malta,  which  they 
reentered,  by  official  permission  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment. As  for  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and  the  two 
Sicilies,  it  was  difficult  for  the  Society  to  comply  with  all 
the  invitations  which  they  received.  Every  city  desired 
them,  and  made  offer  of  church  and  residence.  The  Nea- 
politans and  Sicilians  seemed  resolved  to  have  compensa- 
tion for  the  privation  which  they  had  so  long  endured. 
It  was  impossible  to  satisfy  all.  The  requirements  of 
63* 


310  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

the  foreign  missions  were  even  more  urgent,  and  the  Fa- 
ther-General gave  them  his  anxious  attention.  This  zeal 
of  the  society  for  distant  missions  across  the  seas,  made 
it  doubly  dear  to  the  Holy  Father,  who  frequently  la- 
mented the  little  vocation  which  the  Romans  had  for  this 
apostleship.  *  One  day,  Father  Roothaan  presented  to  His 
Holiness  several  missionaries,  who  were  about  to  set  out, 
and  for  whom  he  begged  a  blessing,  adding,  as  he  pointed 
to  one  of  them  : 

"  Holy  Father,  this  is  a  Roman." 

"  A  Roman  !"  exclaimed  Gregory;  "  then  he  must  have 
a  double  blessing,  for  the  seven  hills  of  the  Eternal  City 
are  to  my  Romans  like  the  pillars  of  Hercules.  Their 
missions  never  reach  beyond  the  Monte-Mario."* 

VIII. 

On  the  27th  of  March,  1840,  a  Black-robe  penetrated 
to  the  Upper  Missouri,  where  several  Indian  tribes  had 
long  sighed  for  his  coming.  At  Green  River,  the  Black- 
robe  met  the  Flat-heads  and  the  Ponderas,  who  had  come 
to  meet  him.  Tears  flowed  from  their  eyes,  and  the  most 
aged  man  of  the  two  tribes  addressed  him  : 

"Black-robe,  you  are  welcome  to  our  nation.  The 
Great  Spirit  has  this  day  answered  our  prayers.  Our 
hearts  are  full,  for  our  desires  are  satisfied.  Black-robe, 
we  will  listen  to  your  words." 

This  Black-robe  was  Father  De  Smet.  He  made  him- 
self, like  his  beloved  Indians,  a  wanderer  and  a  hunter, 
accompanying  them  in  their  journej^s,  partaking  of  the 
same  fare,  and  conforming  to  all  their  ways,  the  more 
surely  to  induce  them  to  a  change.  On  the  27tli  of 
August,  he  was  obliged  to  leave  them  for  a  few  months 

♦Monte-Mario  is  just  outside  the  walls  of  Rome. — Tb. 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTIIAAN.         311 

an  announcement  which  filled  them  with  grief.     lie  him« 
self  describes  the  parting  : 

"  Long  before  sunrise,  the  whole  tribe  was  assembled  around  my 
lodge.  No  one  spoke,  but  sorrow  was  visible  in  evei*y  face.  The 
only  thing  that  seemed  to  give  them  any  consolation,  was  my 
formal  promise  of  a  return  in  the  spring  with  more  missionaries. 
I  recited  morning  prayers  amid  the  tears  and  sobs  of  these  good 
savages.  In  spite  of  myself,  they  drew  from  me,  also,  tears  which 
I  would  fiiin  have  concealed.  I  explained  to  them  the  necessity 
of  my  going.  I  exhorted  them  to  continue  to  serve  the  Great 
Spirit  with  fervor,  and  to  remove  from  their  midst  evei'y  subject 
of  scandal.  I  recalled  to  them  the  chief  truths  of  religion.  I 
then  appointed  as  their  spiritual  chief  a  very  intelligent  Indian, 
whom  I  had  myself  instructed  with  especial  care.  He  was  to  rep- 
resent me  in  my  absence,  to  assemble  them  in  the  morning  and 
evening,  as  well  as  on  Sundays,  recite  the  prayers,  exhort  them  to 
virtue,  baptize  the  dying,  and,  if  need  be,  the  newly-born.  There 
was  but  one  voice,  one  sentiment,  to  observe  faithfully  all  my  rec- 
ommendations. With"  tears  in  their  eyes,  they  wished  me  a  suc- 
cessful voyage.     The  aged  Big-face  ai'ose  and  said: 

" '  Black-robe,  may  the  Great  Spirit  be  with  jon  in  your  long 
and  dangerous  voyage.  Every  morning  and  evening  we  shall 
pray  that  you  may  arrive  safely  among  your  brethren  at  St.  Louis. 
We  shall  continue  to  pray  until  you  again  see  your  children  of  the 
mountains.  When  the  snow  begins  to  leave  the  valleys,  and  the 
grass  grows  on  the  prairies,  our  hearts,  that  are  now  so  heavy, 
shall  begin  to  be  lifted  up.  As  the  grass  grows  higher,  our  joy 
shall  rise  too;  and,  when  the  flowers  are  seen  again,  we  shall  set 
out  to  meet  you.     Farewell!' 

"Full  of  confidence  in  the  Lord,  who  had  preserved  me  so  fre- 
quently, I  set  out  with  my  little  party,  and  my  faithful  Fleming, 
who  continued  to  share  my  dangers  and  fatigues." 

After  four  months  of  toil  and  peril,  Father  Peter  De 
Smet  rejoined  his  brethren,  and  told  them  of  the  rich  har- 
vest that  was  waiting  for  them  among  the  savages  of  the 
mountains.  All  desired  to  accompany  him,  but  the  favor 
was  accorded  to  Fathers  Point  and  Mengarini  alone,  who 


312  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

on  the  21st  of  April,  1841,  set  out  in  company  with  three 
Brother-coadjutors.  The  joy  of  the  Flat-heads  was  great 
on  seeing  Father  De  8met  return  with  such  a  band  of 
missionaries.  No  sooner  had  they  arrived  than  these 
latter  separated.  Guided  by  the  Flat-heads,  they  went 
out  to  seek  other  tribes,  as  yet  involved  in  the  darkness 
of  Paganism.  Father  De  Smet  was  expected,  and  ardently 
desired,  by  the  Nez-Perces,  the  Pend-d'Oreilies,  and  other 
tribes,  equally  anxious  to  know  the  Black-robe  and  learn 
the  prayer/^  On  the  3d  of  November,  the  Apostle  of  the 
Kocky  Mountains  wrote  as  follows : 

"  Counting  from  the  beginning  of  April  of  liiis  year,  I  have 
travelled  five  thousand  miles.  I  have  descended  and  again  as- 
cended the  Columbia  River;  I  have  seen  five  of  my  companions 
perish  in  the  rapids  of  that  stream;  I  have  followed  the  course  of 
the  Willamette  and  the  Oregon;  I  have  crossed  the  different  chains 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains;  I  have  traversed,  a  second  time,  the 
desert  of  the  Yellow  Stone  in  its  greatest  Avidth;  I  have  descended 
the  Missouri  to  St.  Louis;  and,  in  all  this  long  journey,  I  have 
never  been  without  what  was  necessary  for  life — I  have  never  re- 
ceived the  slightest  scratch.  Dominus  memor  fuit  nostrij  et  bencdixit 
nobis. ^^ 

A  few  years  later,  all  that  vast  territory  lying  between 
the  states  and  the  Pacific  Ocean,  north  of  California, 
formed  three  dioceses,  under  the  administration  of  one 
atchbishop  and  two  suffragan  bishops. 

In  the  United  States,  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  re- 
mark, even  Protestants  acknowledged  the  science,  the 
talent,  and  the  virtues  of  the  Jesuits.  Father  Larkin 
was  one  of  those  whose  eloquence  they  delighted  to  hear. 

Born  in  1800,  in  the  county  of  Durham,  England,  he 
had   studied    with    Cardinal    Wiseman,   at  Ushaw,  where 


*  So  the  Indians  are  accustomed  to  call  that  which  we  intend  bv 
the  word  religion. — Tr. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.         313 

they  had  for  professor  the  celebrated  Dr.  ]ji  upward.  A  Her 
a  journey  to  Hindostan,  he  entered  the  Seminary  of 
St.  Sulpice,  at  Paris,  where  he  was  admitted  a  member  of 
that  congregation.  After  having  taken  holy  orders,  he 
was  sent  by  his  superiors  to  their  college  at  Baltimore, 
and  then  to  that  of  Montreal,  Canada,  and,  for  twelve 
years,  taught  mathematics  and  philosophy  with  the  great- 
est success.  In  1840,  yielding  to  an  irresistible  vocation, 
he  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus,  where,  in  the  first  months 
of  his  noviceship,  he  was  employed  by  his  superiors  in 
giving  missions  and  retreats,  by  which  he  effected  great 
good,  and  established  for  himself  a  singular  reputation 
in  Kentucky.  In  1811,  he  opened  a  college  at  Louis- 
ville, to  which  the  leading  Protestants  were  anxious  and 
happy  to  be  allowed  to  send  their  children.  When  he 
occupied  the  pulpit,  he  did  not  merely  excite  admiration — 
he  electrified  his  audience  ;  so  much  so,  that,  on  certain 
occasions,  they  were  unable  to  control  their  enthusiasm, 
or  to  repress  its  manifestation.  One  day,  Father  Larkin 
was  solicited  to  lecture  before  a  literary  society  of  Louis- 
ville, instead  of  the  celebrated  John  Quincy  Adams,  who 
had  been  prevented,  by  sudden  indisposition,  from  de 
livering  a  discourse  which  was  already  announced. 

Father  Larkin  had  only  a  few  hours  for  preparation, 
but  he  could  not  refuse  this  occasion  of  addressing  men 
of  every  shade  of  religious  opinion,  who  would  then  be 
present.  His  improvised  effort  enraptured  his  audience. 
He  had  chosen  for  his  subject,  Genius,  and  he  treated  it 
with  a  depth  of  thought,  a  vigor  of  talent,  and  a  richness 
of  eloquence  that  none  attempted  to  dispute. 

They  were  always  anxious  to  hear  him.  The  Fourth 
of  July  is  the  anniversary  of  the  Independence  of  the 
United  States,  and  is  celebrated  by  all  kinds  of  rejoicings 
and  public  displays.  In  1843,  Father  Larkin  was  in- 
vited to  deliver  the  customary  oration.     It  was  an  honor 


314  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

paid  to  his  fine  talents  and  to  his  amiable  character ; 
but  it  had  its  difficulties.  He,  a  Catholic  priest,  and  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  had  to  address  a  mixed 
assembl}' — not  unfavorable,  perhaps,  but  critical — com- 
prising the  civil  and  military  authorities,  Protestant  cler- 
gymen, the  wealth  and  fashion  of  the  city,  who  did  not 
and  could  not  sympathize  with  his  dearest  affections  and 
nis  most  cherished  principles.  The  learned  and  eloquent 
Jesuit  was  never  more  happy;  and  on  the  7th  of  July,  a 
leading  journal,  the  Louisville  Advertiser^  said  : 

"  On  Sunday  evening  last,  we  heard  a  magnificent  discourse 
from  Father  Larkin,  delivered  to  an  immense  assembly  of  citizens 
and  soldiers.  The  orator  could  not  have  chosen  a  theme*  more 
appropriate  to  the  occasion,  nor  could  he  have  fulfilled  more  hap- 
pily the  difficult  task  imposed  on  him.  The  profound  erudition 
and  the  polished  style  of  this  celebrated  Jesuit  invested  the  trite 
subject  of  our  national  independence  with  a  light  and  beauty  un- 
known till  then  to  his  audience,  reproducing,  as  he  did,  the  sol- 
emn teachings  of  history  and  Sacred  Scripture,  with  a  dignity 
and  warmth  that  subjugated  and  entranced  the  souls  of  his  nu- 
merous audience  with  pleasure  and  admiration. 

"Seen  from  a  distance,  in  his  rural  sanctuary,  his  commanding 
form  towering  above  the  platform  until  it  almost  reached  the 
branches  of  the  tree  above;  his  sacerdotal  vestments  contrasting 
with  the  brilliant  uniforms  around;  his  animated  figure  and 
commanding  gesture,  fixing  the  attention  of  the  steady  soldier 
and  the  respectful  Christian — we  were  reminded  of  scenes  in  the 
middle  ages,  when,  in  those  knightly  times,  an  humble  minister  of 
tne  Roman  Church  would  review  the  Christian  legions,  which, 
bristling  with  steel,  marched  to  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre." 

In  1846,  the  authorities  applied  for  some  priests  to 
join,  as  chaplains,  the  army  which  was  then  preparing  to 
assert  the  rights  of  the  United  States  Government  against 

"*  The  subject  was  dristian  Liheriy,  and  the  text,  if  we  have  been 
well  informed,  "  If  the  Son  of  God  shall  make  you  free,  you  shall  be 
free  indeed." — Te. 


GENERALSHIP  OF    FATHER   JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        315 

that  of  Mexico.  There  were  a  great  many  Catliolics  in 
the  rank  and  file,  for  whom  their  officers  wished  this  re- 
ligious support  and  consohition.  Many  of  tlie  Protestant 
military  chaplains  had  preferred  to  resio;n  rather  than 
obey  a  similar  call ;  but  application  being  made  to  Catho- 
lics, two  priests  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  at  once  responded. 
They  were  the  venerable  Father  McElroy,  who  devoted 
himself  to  the  care  of  the  sick  and  the  wounded  in  the 
hospital  at  jMatamoras,  where  he  received  the  benedic- 
tions of  Protestants  and  Catholics  alike,  and  Father  Rey, 
who  assisted  the  wounded  and  dying  on  the  field  of  battle. 
The  latter,  after  having  been  preserved  through  the  dan- 
gers of  the  assault  at  Monterey,  in  which,  crucifix  in 
hand,  he  marched  at  the  head  of  the  column,  fell  at  last 
under  the  knife  of  a  Mexican  brigand,  and  went  to  receive 
the  recompense  of  his  zeal  and  courage. 

South  America,  also,  reclaimed  the  ministry  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus.  The  Argentine  Republic  saw  its  wishes 
accomplished,  August  26th,  1836,  in  the  arrival  {it  Bue- 
nos Ayres  of  Fathers  Berdugo,  Majeste,  Coris,  Gonzalez, 
and  Macaron. 

The  dictator,  Rosas,  was  not  slow  to  understand  the 
ascendency  of  the  Jesuits  over  a  people  of  whom  they 
had  formerly  been  the  civilizers,  protectors,  pastors,  and 
fathers.  He  wished  to  engage  them  in  the  support  of 
his  despotism  :  the  Jesuits  preached  peace,  charity,  and 
submission.  The  dictator  was  not  satisfied;  he  exacted 
more,  and  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  at  their  modera- 
tion. The  Fathers  could  not  be  other  than  ministers  of 
the  Gospel ;  strangers  to  politics,  they  would  not  join 
either  party,  and  maintained  a  strict  neutrality,  at  the 
risk  of  compromising  the  future  prosperity  of  their  missions. 
The  dictator  could  not  obtain  from  them  Te  Denms  in 
honor  of  murders,  which  he  called  victories  ;  he  could  not 
persuade  them  to  place  his  image  in  the  church  beside  those 


316  HISTORY  OP  THE   SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

of  the  saints.  Offended  by  their  refusal,  he  declared 
himself  their  enemy.  To  escape  his  fury,  Father  Ber- 
dugo  took  refuge  on  board  the  Alcyon^  where  he  was 
received  with  all  the  respect  due  to  his  sacerdotal  char- 
acter. In  the  month  of  March,  18-43,  Rosas,  seeing  that 
he  could  not  overcome  the  firmness  of  the  sons  of  I«i;na- 
tius,  ordered  them  to  secularize  themselves,  or  to  leave 
Buenos  Ayres  within  eight  days.  They  were  then  about 
forty  in  number  within  the  confines  of  the  republic  :  they 
did  not  hesitate  to  disperse  themselves,  some  going  to 
Brazil,  some  to  Chili,  others  to  more  distant  places,  but 
every-where  receiving  a  joyful  welcome,  and  finding  some- 
thing to  do  for  the  glory  of  God.  The  town  of  Catamarca 
demanded  the  return  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  provincial 
assembly  of  Tucuman  declared  them,  August  13th,  18-i4, 
reestablished  throughout  its  limits.  So,  too,  did  New 
Granada,  and  all  the  other  provinces  of  South  America, 
which,  in  former  days,  had  known  and  appreciated  the 
value  of  their  labors. 

In  the  Levant,  where  the  old  missionaries  had  con- 
tinued their  labors,  others  came  to  assist  them,  so  soon  as 
the  society,  after  its  restoration,  found  itself  able  to  re- 
sume this  apostolate.  On  the  7th  of  February,  1837, 
Father  Franco,  writing  from  Syria  to  Father  Guidee, 
says : 

"  It  is  to  the  great  poverty  of  the  missions  that  the  society  owes 
her  retaining  them.  So  indigent  were  they,  that  the  other  mis- 
sionaries did  not  venture  to  undertake  them  on  the  suppression 
of  the  Institute.  We  have  only  two  residences  in  the  archi- 
pelago— one  at  Tenos,  the  other  at  Syra.  It  was  at  the  latter 
place  that,  on  Christmas  day,  one  of  our  missionaries  learned,  as 
he  was  about  to  begin  mass,  that  a  French  vessel  was  about  to  be 
wrecked  at  the  very  entrance  of  the  port.  'My  children,'  said 
he,  'some  of  our  French  brethren  arc  in  great  danger;  run  to 
their  rescue.  Nothing  that  you  can  do  on  this  great  feast  can 
be  more  acceptable  to  God  I'     In  a  moment  the  church  was  empty. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.   317 

Men  and  women,  old  and  young,  hastened  to  the  scene,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  saving  thirty-four  persons;  to  those  who  were  drowned 
they  gave  decent  burial. 

"For  my  own  part,  I  have  no  fixed  residence,  I  visit  the  dif- 
ferent viUages  of  the  ishxnd,  and  the  various  dioceses  of  the  archi- 
pelago, giving  retreats  and  missions.  Not  unfrequently  I  am 
invited  to  Smyrna,  and  even  to  Constantinople,  for  the  same 
object." 

In  other  parts  of  Greece  the  missionaries  were  no 
better  situated.  In  Syria  they  had  to  contend  with 
Turkish  fanaticism.  "  You  are  persecuted,"  says  Father 
Planchet  to  •  Father  Maillard,  March  28th,  1844;  "so 
are  we ;  but  we  shall  be  so,  only  in  so  far  as  God  per- 
mits." 

In  1833,  Gregory  XVI  sent  the  Jesuits  to  Calcutta, 
where  they  were  ardently  desired. 

At  the  suppression  of  the  society,  they  had  left  in  that 
part  of  Hindostan  forty  thousand  Catholics.  Sixty  years 
later  they  found  only  eight  thousand  ;  the  rest  had  sunk 
into  Protestantism,  Islamism,  or  Paganism.  On  arriving, 
October  8th,  1834,  they  found  themselves  opposed  by  the 
Portuguese.  The  Governor  of  Goa  demanded  their  ex- 
pulsion, in  the  name  of  the  court  of  Lisbon.  The  Eng- 
lish refused  :  they  had  promised  religious  freedom,  and 
they  were  resolved  to  keep  their  promise.  A  rich  Ar- 
menian offered  his  house  to  Father  St.  Leger,  in  which 
to  open  a  college  ;  and,  on  the  1st  of  July,  1835,  it  was 
established,  under  the  name  and  patronage  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  the  illustrious  Apostle  of  the  Indies.  Father 
More  evangelized  Bengal  with  wonderful  success.  In 
1842,  one  of  the  richest  nobles  of  that  vast  country,  de- 
lighted with  the  education  which  the  young  Hindoos  re- 
ceived in  the  College  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  wished  tc 
found,  at  his  own  expense,  a  similar  establishment,  with 
this  diflference,  that  the  students  should  be  exclusively 
64  .  . 


318  HISTORY    OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

Pagan,  and  tliat  the  Fathers  should  not  speak  of  religion 
except  by  example. 

Babou-Moussi-Lolle-Seal  was  an  idolater,  but  it  may 
be  that,  seeing  the  virtues  and  zeal  of  the  Jesuits,  he 
partially  regretted  not  being  a  Christian,  and  hoped  that 
the  Pagan  pupils  of  the  holy  religious  would  be  unable 
to  resist  the  influence  of  their  pious  lives. 

The  Jesuits  hesitated ;  such  a  proposition  startled 
them,  and  they  wished  to  consult  the  Propaganda.  The 
decision  was  in  favor  of  Babou-Moussi's  proposal.  Not 
long  after,  the  Archbishop  of  Calcutta  installed  the  Fa- 
thers in  their  new  college;  and  the  Governor-General,  an 
Anglican,  in  the  presence  of  a  brilliant  assembly,  pro- 
nounced the  eulogiura  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

For  that  society  of  heroes,  whose  standard  is  the  Cross, 
whose  chief  is  Jesus  Christ,  humiliation  quickly  succeeds 
to  triumph.  Calvary  is  never  far  from  Tabor.  Fathers 
More,  Erwin,  and  Weld  were  greatly  beloved  and  sought 
after.  God  called  them  to  himself.  Father  Weld,  espe- 
cially, had  gained  favor  with  the  higher  castes,  and  what- 
ever he  did  they  approved.  After  his  death  the  case  was 
different.  It  was  found  that  the  Fathers  of  Seal  College — 
the  name  given  to  it  by  Babou-Moussi — kept  domestics 
of  an  inferior  caste,  contrary  to  the  national  custom.  The 
Brahmins,  Mussulmans,  and  sectarians  made  use  of  this 
fact  to  excite  indignation  against  the  Fathers,  whose  zeal 
was  daily  augmenting  the  number  of  Catholics. 

Babou-Moussi,  in  his  irritation,  withdrew  from  them  the 
direction  of  his  institution.  The  Fathers  turned  their  at- 
tention to  other  fields  of  labor,  retaining,  however,  their 
own  College  of  St.  Francis  Xavier. 

The  Vicar-Apostolic  of  Canton  applied  to  Borne  for 
missionaries  of  the  society.  The  Christians  of  that  China 
which  the  Jesuits  had  first  opened  to  the  Gospel,  still  re- 
tained the  memory  of  their  beloved  apostles,  and  sought 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER    JOHN   ROOTHAAN.        319 

their  return.  On  the  27th  of  April,  1841,  Fathers  Gotte- 
hind,  Brueyre,  and  Estiva  embarked  at  Brest,  on  their 
way  to  China.  In  the  province  of  Canton,  and  in  that 
of  Nankin,  they  found  more  than  forty-five  thousand  Chris- 
tians, who  had  ureserved  the  faith  transmitted  to  them 
by  their  fathers,  though  almost  entirely  deprived  of  spir- 
itual aid  since  the  suppression  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Other  missionaries  set  out  with  the  French  embassy,  on 
the  13th  of  October,  1844  ;  and  Father  Clavelin,  one  of 
their  number,  writing  to  his  brethren  in  Europe,  January 
12th,  1845,  sends  the  following  description  of  a  mission- 
ary's life  in  the  flowery  kingdom  : 

"  During  mass,  you  give  a  short  instruction  of  twenty  minutes; 
you  do  the  same  at  marriages,  when  circumstances  permit.  You 
are  constantly  interrupted  in  the  midst  of  your  occupations. 
They  will  come  to  call  you  to  the  sick,  who  live  far  ofiF — very  far, 
when  you  consider  the  slowness  of  transportation.  You  must  take 
every  thing  with  you ;  it  is  almost  a  day's  journey.  After  having 
administered  to  the  sick,  baptized  the  children,  and  fulfilled  every 
ministry  which  lay  in  your  power,  you  return  .as  you  went,  in  a 
boat,  or  borne  in  a  palanquin — a  favorable  opportunity  to  perform 
your  spiritual  exercises.  On  reaching  the  place  whence  you 
started,  you  will  enter  the  confessional,  unless  there  be  another 
sick-call  to  attend,  in  which  case  you  hurry  off  at  once,  happy 
even  then  if  you  arrive  in  time.  Father  Esteve,  who  does  not 
spare  himself,  had  seven  or  eight  to  die  in  his  district  without 
having  received  the  last  sacraments.  If  not  disturbed,  you  con- 
tinue to  hear  confessions  until  eight,  nine,  or  ten  o'clock  at  night. 
Going  to  bed  at  eleven  o'clock,  or  even  later,  you  must  be  up  by 
four  or  five,  provided,  indeed,  no  one  has  come  to  summon  you 
during  the  night,  a  not  unfrequent  occurrence.  You  may  ask 
why  one  can  not  answer,  in  such  cases,  that  he  has  need  of  rest, 
that  his  health  will  not  stand  it,  that  he  must  take  some  little 
care  of  himself.  Can  he  not  tell  them  to  wait  until  the  next 
day?  'Ah!'  some  Father  will  say,  *I  have  it  always  on  my  con- 
science that  I  did  so  on  one  occasion,  and  then  went,  to  find  the 
man  dead.  He  had  not  been  to  confession  for  more  than  forty 
years.'     In  just  such  a  case,  last  week,  I  found  confessions  of 


320  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

forty  and  fifty  years.  Scarcely  can  you  administer,  before  the 
sick  person  breathes  his  last.  But,  at  least,  after  returning  from 
such  a  trip,  one  may  take  some  rest.  Not  at  all,  my  dear  Father; 
for,  on  returning,  you  find  Christians  who  have  been  waiting  some 
three,  some  four,  and  even  eight  days,  for  the  chance  of  confessing. 
And  yet  they  have  their  Iannis  to  till,  their  families  to  support,  so 
that,  if  you  will  not  hear  them,  they  must  e'en  go.  And  so  you  go 
to  the  confessional — do  you  not?  That  is  not  all;  the  fever  may 
seize  you,  and,  whilst  you  are  in  this  state,  some  one  comes  to  call 
you  to  a  dying  man — what  will  you  do  then  ?  When  we  came 
here,  we  found  Father  Esteve  stretched  on  his  bed  by  the  fever. 
He  had  been  transferred  from  his  own  district  to  Van-Dam,  to  re- 
cruit his  health;  but  here,  too,  the  confessional  claimed  him,  and 
the  fever  succeeded.  On  Sunday,  by  way  of  variety,  you  say  two 
masses  in  different  places,  and  preach  twice.  To  strengthen  you, 
there  are  fasts  without  number,  which  you  keep  very  strictly,  to 
the  great  edification  of  the  faithful.  Now,  do  not  lose  patience, 
my  dear  Father,  for  patience  is  just  the  virtue  which  is  most 
needed.  Without  it  you  can  do  no  good  in  China.  I  will  not  say 
any  thing  about  the  heat,  which  is  excessive  here  during  certain 
seasons  of  the  year,  and  lately  caused  the  death  of  three  students 
in  the  seminary.  In  the  midst  of  all  these  fatigues,  I  must  not 
omit  to  say  that  the  missionary  receives  great  graces,  more  than 
Bufl&cient  to  sustain  him." 

Those  Fathers  who,  on  their  knees,  implore  the  favor 
of  being  sent  to  the  missions,  know  very  well  the  suffer- 
ings, the  fatigues,  the  privations,  the  labors  which  await 
them,  and  yet  they  long  for  that  species  of  martyrdom, 
of  which  heaven  is  the  only  witness,  and  God  alone  the 
recompense. 

Other  Jesuits  had  resumed  a  mission  even  more  severe: 
it  was  that  of  Madura,  which  they  had  been  forced  to 
abandon  at  the  time  of  their  suppression,  and  where  they 
returned  toward  the  close  of  1837,  when  the  schism  of 
Goa  was  multiplying  difficulties  in  the  way  of  those  who 
remained  faithful  to  the  Holy  See.  They  were  driven 
from  churches  which  their  predecessors  had  erected  ;  they 
were  forbidden  to  preach  or  to  pray,  and  so  they  had  to 


GENERALSniP  OF  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.    321 

construct  huts  in  which  they  mi<^ht  offer  up  the  holy 
sacrifice.  They  toolc  refuii;e  in  the  forests,  liice  the  poor 
pariahs,  but  they  never  gave  way  to  despair,  and  to  all 
their  persecutors  could  do,  opposed  only  an  invincible  pa- 
tience. 

There  were  only  four  to  bear  up  against  all  this  labor. 
Hardships  and  privations  soon  undermined  their  health. 
Hunger,  thirst,  want  of  sleep,  and  a  burning  climate  were 
too  much  for  human  endurance.  They  asked  from  Europe, 
not  a  recall,  for  they  gloried  in  their  martyrdom,  but  for 
other  missionaries  to  replace  them  when  God  should  call 
them  away.  The  reinforcement  arrived,  and,  in  1843, 
eight  young  Fathers  succumbed  to  this  exhausting  life. 
No  sooner  had  the  society  heard  the  news,  than  an  inde- 
scribable ardor  pervaded  all.  Every  one  sought  to  be 
sent  tq  Madura,  and  six  Fathers  and  two  Brothers  were  at 
once  dispatched.  On  reaching  that  shore,  which  was  to 
furnish  them  a  grave,  they  knelt  and  kissed  its  soil,  re- 
turning thanks  to  God  for  having  chosen  them  for  that 
dangerous  apostolate. 

IX. 

Gregory  XYI  died  on  the  1st  of  June,  1846.  Car- 
dinal Mastai,  Archbishop  of  Imola,  was  proceeding  to 
Home,  to  join  the  conclave  which  was  to  give  the  Church 
a  new  Pontiif,  when,  in  passing  Fossombrone,  where  the 
people  waited  to  receive  his  blessing,  a  dove,  descending, 
alighted  on  the  carriage  of  His  Eminence,  and  settled  it- 
self as  if  to  stay. 

The  Italians  have  a  tradition  that,  in  the  primitive 
Church,  bishops  were  sometimes  elected,  who  seemed 
chosen  of  God,  by  this  sign  of  a  dove  alighting  upon  them 
at  the  time  of  the  deliberation.  They  were  called  bishops 
of  the  dove. 

When  the  people  of  Fossombrone  saw  the  dove  perch 
64* 


322  HISTORY    OF   THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

upon  the  carriage  of  the  Cardinal,  they  began  to  cry  out, 
"  Long  live  Cardinal  Mastai!  He  will  be  Pope;  the  dove 
has  chosen  him!  He  is  the  Pope!  Long  live  the  Pope!'' 
Their  shouts,  strange  to  say,  did  not  seem  to  alarm  the 
lovely  bird,  which  remained  as  quiet  and  still  as  if  it  were 
conscious  of  the  Divine  mission  which  the  crowd  attributed 
to  it.  And  when  they  sought  to  startle  it,  they  could 
not.  It  was  touched  with  a  long  rod,  but  did  not  seem 
to  fear.  When  lightly  struck,  it  rose  for  a  little  distance, 
circled  around,  and  again  perched  upon  the  carriage. 
This  time  there  could  be  no  longer  any  doubt  for  the 
ardent  Italians.  The  crowd  went  wild  with  enthusiasm, 
and  the  air  rung  with,  "Long  live  the  Pope — the  Pope 
of  the  dove!  God  wills  it!"  Whatever  we  may  think 
of  this  pretty  little  incident,  Cardinal  Mastai  became  Pope 
Pius  IX,  elected  on  the  second  ballot,  on  the  first  day 
of  the  scrutiny,  June  16th,  1846. 

No  doubt,  the  new  Pontiff  was  not  less  inclined  to  favor 
the  Institute  of  St,  Ignatius  than  his  predecessor;  but  he 
ascended  the  throne  at  a  time  of  great  excitement  in 
Italy  and  all  Europe,  and  he  thought  it  best  to  make 
concessions  to  the  Liberal  party.  Their  exactions  in- 
creased with  the  goodness  of  Pius  IX,  and  the  horizon 
seemed  black  with  coming  storms. 

In  France,  Liberalism  thought  itself  the  victor.  The 
Jesuits  of  Paris,  instead  of  occupying  their  two  houses 
of  the  Rue  des  Pastes  and  the  Rue  de  Sevres^  were  dis- 
tributed in  several — -three,  four,  and  five  of  them  together. 
They  did  not  interrupt  their  sacred  ministry;  they  heard 
as  many  confessions,  and  preached  as  frequently  as  before. 
Nothing  was  changed  but  their  residence,  and  the  num- 
ber of  its  inmates;  but  Liberalism,  not  being  able  to  gain 
more,  had  to  be  content  with  this.  It  was  a  sop  to  Cer- 
berus. The  Liberals  would  have  even  consented,  in  their 
triumph,  to  attend  the  conferences  of  Father  de  Raviguan, 


GENERALSHIP   OF   FATHER    JOHN    ROOTIIAAN.        323 

at  Notre  Dame,  during  tlic  Lent  of  1847,  had  not  that 
celebrated  orator  hcen  o])li<red  to  omit  his  course  on  ac- 
count of  a  severe  indisposition,  which  o;ave  rise  to  fears 
for  his  life,  and  which  necessitated  an  absolute  and  pro- 
longed repose.  On  the  other  side,  the  government  was 
not  reluctant  to  profit  by  the  zeal  and  ingenuous  charity 
of  the  Jesuits  in  projects  which  did  not  affect  the  sus- 
ceptibilities of  their  party,  and  which  produced  material 
advantages  for  the  state. 

Father  Brumauld  had  opened  an  orphan  asylum  in 
Algeria.  He  had  come  to  the  colony  almost  as  soon  as 
its  first  bishop,  M.  Dupuch,  having  no  other  resources 
than  the  plans  suggested  by  his  zeal  and  charity.  He 
had  gathered  together  either  orphans  or  children  deserted 
by  their  parents,  without  clothes  or  food,  and  he  had 
established  them  in  a  house  near  Algiers,  while  he  col- 
lected alms  for  those  little  ones,  who  called  hira  father, 
and  loved  to  obey  his  slightest  word.  The  Bishop  of 
Algiers  assisted  him  in  this  noble  work.  The  govern- 
ment, acceding  to  his  request,  backed  by  that  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, made  an  appropriation  in  behalf  of  Father  Bru- 
mauld, and  the  asylum  was  transferred  to  a  more  com- 
modious situation,  at  Ben-Aknoun.  The  good  religious 
wished  to  make  of  his  orphans  pious  Christians  and  good 
agriculturists,  so  as  to  furnish  the  colony  with  citizens 
capable  of  turning  to  account  all  those  uncultivated  lands 
from  which  the  country  hoped,  one  day,  to  receive  large 
returns.  The  Jesuits  of  Ben-Aknoun  did  not  restrict 
themselves  to  the  care  of  their  orphans;  they  occupied 
themselves  with  every  thing  that  could  procure  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  good  of  souls.  Marshal  Bugeaud  ad- 
mired and  loved  them,  in  spite  of  the  hatred  with  which 
Liberalism  pursued  them. 

One  day,  one  of  the  sons  of  Louis  Philippe,  being  at 
Algiers,  heard  some  one  speaking  in  praise  of  the  asylum 


324  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

of  Father  Brumauld,  and  asked  the  Marshal  to  what  order 
the  Father  belonged. 

"He  is  a  Jesuit." 

"A  Jesuit!  Why,  in  France,  we  wish  to  get  rid  of 
them;  how  comes  it  that  in  Algiers  you  employ  them?" 

"The  King,"  answered  the  Marshal,  "has  sent  me  here 
to  do  good.  These  Jesuits  are  admirable  in  their  zeal, 
their  intelligence,  and  their  devotedness.  They  render 
excellent  service  to  the  colony,  and,  as  I  am  here  for  its 
advantage,  I  would  accept  it  from  any  one — even  the 
devil!" 

The  young  Prince,  satisfied  that,  after  all,  a  Jesuit  was 
not  worse  than  the  devil,  did  not  push  his  inquiry. 

In  the  month  of  September,  1847,  Father  de  Eavignan, 
who  was  still  unable  to  ascend  the  pulpit,  was  deputed 
on  the  part  of  the  French  province  to  Rome,  and  could 
note  the  progress  made  by  the  enemies  of  the  Church  in 
Italy,  and  even  in  the  capital  of  Christendom.  The  Car- 
bonari no  longer  concealed  their  designs,  and  openly  pro- 
claimed their  hopes  and  desires  by  their  cries  of,  "Hurrah 
for  Gioberti !   Hurrah  for  Ganganelli!" 

Pius  IX  was  far  from  being  deceived :  this  applause  of 
a  Pope  who  had  sacrificed  to  the  exactions  of  incredulity, 
heresy,  and  impiety  the  most  intrepid  and  devoted  de- 
fenders of  the  Church,  was  a  warning  to  him.  He  thought 
it  well  to  show  the  radicals  that  they  need  expect  nothing 
of  the  kind  from  him.  He  loved  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
and  he  wished  to  give  it  a  public  mark  of  that  afi'ection, 
at  a  time  when  its  enemies  seemed  to  be  aiming  at  its 
life.  The  greatest  feast  of  the  society  is  that  of  the 
Sacred  Name  of  Jesus,  which  the  Church  celebrates  on 
the  1st  of  January.  Pius  IX,  on  the  eve  of  the  festival, 
visited  the  Church  of  the  Gesu,  and,  after  having  spent 
some  time  in  prayer,  went  into  the  house  and  conversed 
with  the  Fathers,  then  very  numerous,  as  the  deputies  of 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER   JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        325 

the  congregation  had  not  all  dispersed.  This  visit,  in 
such  circumstances,  evinced  great  courage;  it  showed  all 
the  firmness  of  his  great  soul,  and  the  generosity  of  his 
noble  heart.  The  enemies  of  the  Church  well  understood 
its  meaning. 

About  the  end  of  February,  1848,  the  revolution  broke 
out  in  France,  and  Louis  Philippe  was  dethroned  by  the 
same  people  that  had  given  hira  the  crown.  He  fled,  and 
the  republic  was  proclaimed.  The  Jesuits,  always  keep- 
ing aloof  from  political  parties  and  revolutions,  preserved 
their  calm,  and  held  themselves  ready  to  undergo  what- 
ever Providence  might  have  in  store  for  them.  On  this 
occasion,  the  revolution  showed  itself  less  terrible  than 
had  been  expected;  and,  before  long,  the  Fathers  were 
allowed  to  establish  themselves  again  in  their  old  resi- 
dences, and  resume  the  regular  life  of  their  community, 
or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called  by  them,  their  family  life. 
The  revolutionists,  having  obtained  what  they  desired, 
ceased  to  trouble  themselves  about  the  Jesuits.  They 
allowed  them  to  preach,  hear  confessions,  occupy  them- 
selves in  good  works,  and,  carrying  their  generosity  to  its 
utmost  limits,  accorded  them  the  name  and  rights  of  citi- 
zens. Jesuits  were  allowed  to  vote  for  the  President  of 
the  Republic.  The  good  Fathers  were,  doubtless,  aston- 
ished at  this  excess  of  honor,  accustomed  as  they  had 
been  to  be  outlawed  in  the  name  of  liberty  and  equality. 
But  when  there  is  question  of  revolutions,  nothing  is  too 
wonderful  to  be  believed. 

One  day — it  was  in  1849 — in  passing  through  Toulon,  a 
Jesuit  Father  felt  himself  moved,  as  he  reflected  that  four 
thousand  convicts,  imprisoned  there,  employed  the  time  of 
their  expiation  in  cursing  and  blasphemy.  "Plow  much 
good  might  be  efl"ected  by  a  mission  preached  to  these 
criminals  !  "  This  was  his  thought,  which  he  hastened  to 
lay  before  the  chaplain,  Abbe  Marin,  who  recognized  it 


326  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

as  an  inspiration  from  above,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
foresaw  all  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  its  execution. 
But  Jesuits  are  not  accustomed  to  despair;  they  yield 
only  to  the  will  of  God  as  manifested  by  their  superiors, 
or  by  the  force  of  human  authority.  The  difficulties  were 
great  and  numerous:  the  ministers,  the  prison  adminis- 
tration, the  leadin«;  authorities,  the  regulations  interior 
and  exterior,  all  these  were  so  many  barriers  that  had  to 
be  surmounted.  But  prayer  is  all-powerful,  and  it  is  the 
favorite  weapon  of  the  Jesuit.  Divine  Providence  had 
inspired  the  idea  of  this  great  enterprise,  and  knew  how 
to  remove  the  obstacles  that  opposed  its  designs. 

Father  Brumauld  had  come  to  France  to  ask  the  re- 
public to  commit  foundlings  to  his  care,  so  as,  in  time,  to 
increase  the  number  of  Christian  agriculturists  in  Algiers. 
In  passing  through  Lyons,  his  brethren  asked  him  to 
obtain,  at  Paris,  the  necessary  authorization  for  giving  a 
mission  at  the  galleys  of  Toulon.  The  known  public 
services  of  Father  Brumauld  lent  jjreat  weight  to  his  re- 
quest;  it  was  granted,  and  the  prisons  were  thrown  open 
to  the  Jesuits.  AYe  can  not  undertake  to  give  the  de- 
tails of  that  mission ;  but  if  our  readers  wish  to  read 
moving  recitals  of  touching  scenes,  and  of  the  powerful 
influence  of  Divine  Grace,  they  have  only  to  take  up  the 
interesting  and  stirring  work  of  M.  Leon  Aubineau,  enti- 
tled Les  Jesuites  aiix  Bagnes. 

X. 

Father  Brumauld,  as  we  have  seen,  had  come  to 
France  to  obtain  charge  of  all  those  abandoned  children 
who  might,  growing  up  in  neglect,  become  the  pests  of 
the  capital,  but  who,  educated  in  the  asylum  of  Algiers, 
would,  on  the  contrary,  turn  out  good  citizens  and  good 
agriculturists,  as  well  as  good  Christians.  Father  Bru- 
mauld desired   not  only  the  foundlings,  but  all  the  de- 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTIIAAN.        327 

serted  orphans,  of  whom  so  many  existed  in  Paris.  His 
views  were  well  received,  and  the  government  engaged' to 
send  him,  yearly,  as  many  as  he  could  support,  and  to  al- 
low him  the  camp  of  Erlon,  near  Bouffaric,  for  his  colony 
of  en/ants  j^ci'dus.^  After  having  overcome  all  the  diffi- 
culties in  his  way,  the  good  Jesuit,  accompanied  by  another 
Father  of  the  Order  and  the  new  subjects  of  his  care, 
took  the  road  to  Algeria.  These  children  disembarked  at 
the  African  port,  chanting  the  JIarsei liaise.  The  good 
Fathers  were  not  troubled  by  such  revolutionary  instincts, 
knowing  that  their  gentle  firmness  would  soon  gain  an 
ascendency  over  these  uncultivated  natures.  Nor  were  they 
mistaken;  for  the  Jesuit  never  relies  on  himself  alone;  he 
counts  on  the  assistance  of  Divine  Grace,  which  he  always 
invokes,  and  which  is  never  refused  to  those  who  work  only 
for  the  accomplishment  of  the  will  of  God.  Before  long, 
the  general  officers  of  the  military  colony  of  Algiers 
recognized,  with  admiration,  the  order,  discipline,  and 
industry  of  the  institution  of  Bouffaric.  Those  children, 
the  pests  of  Paris,  obeyed  the  slightest  sign  of  the  Fathers, 
whom  they  loved  wdth  the  tenderest  affection. 

About  the  same  time.  Father  Chable  founded,  at  Paris, 
a  charitable  institution,  which  was  destined  to  have  a  great 
development  and  to  work  immense  good.  A  great  many 
German  workmen  come  to  Paris  in  search  of  work,  which 
they  do  not  always  secure:  they  have  generally  but  little 
money,  and  are  ignorant  of  the  language.  What  becomes 
of  them?  What  is  to  become  of  their  orphan  children, 
who  are  frequently  unable  to  acquire  the  first  principles 
of  a  Christian  education?  The  heart  of  Father  Chable 
was  moved  by  this  great  evil.  He  collected  alms;  he  sent 
for  the  Sisters  of  St.  Charles  at  Nancy;  he  gave  them 
the  care  of  these  poor  little  ones;    built  them  a  chapel 

*  The  "  Gamins  de  Paris,"  of  whom  we  have  so  often  heard. — Tr. 


328       HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OP  JESUS. 

until  a  churcli  should  be  erected;  he  assembled  the  Ger- 
mans together  for  prayer,  instruction,  and  the  sacraments; 
he  worked  wonders,  but  he  was  crippled  for  want  of 
means,  which  he  was  obliged  to  solicit  continually  in  the 
name  and  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Joseph. 

Catholic  France  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  the  re- 
publican government  that  which  had  been  constantly 
refused  to  it  by  former  rulers.  On  the  15th  of  March, 
1850,  education  was  declared  free  and  independent  of  the 
control  of  the  University.  The  Society  of  Jesus  could,  at 
last,  respond  to  the  desires  of  so  many  Christian  families 
by  opening  colleges  for  the  instruction  of  youth.  It  ex- 
ercised this  privilege  with  prudence.  Invitations  were 
numerous  enough,  but  it  wished  to  give  time  for  the  free- 
. thinkers  of  the  day  to  become  reconciled  to  a  liberty  which 
they  had  always  resisted.  It  commenced  with  the  prov- 
inces, and  did  not  open  a  college  at  Paris,  or  rather  at 
Vaugirard,  at  the  gates  of  the  capital,  until  1852.  In  the 
preceding  year  the  applications  for  admission  to  this  insti- 
tution already  exceeded  the  number  for  which  preparation 
was  being  made.  The  same  thing  occurred  in  the  other 
institutions  which  they  established.  At  the  urgent  re- 
quest of  many,  they  also  opened  an  institution  at  Paris, 
Rue  des  Pastes,  to  prepare  students  for  admission  into  the 
special  schools*  of  the  government,  from  which  they  have 
furnished  excellent  subjects. 

The  galleys  aod  prisons  were  full  of  convicts  and  po- 
litical prisoners.  A  law  was  passed  constituting  French 
Guiana  a  penal  colony,  and  the  government  appealed  to 
priestly  charity  for  the  consolation  and  regeneration  of 
those  who  had  carried  their  notions  of  liberty  to  the  last 
excess,  or  whom  crime  had  sunk  to  the  lowest  level.     The 


*  Ecoles  Speciales — schools  wherein  the  highest  instruction  is  given 
in  the  natural  sciences. — Tb. 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  JOHN  ROOTHAAN.    329 

Jesuits  offered  themselves,  and  were  accepted.  They  knew 
how  dangerous  the  climate  of  Cayenne  is  to  Europeans; 
they  knew  what  a  deadly  scourge  the  yellow  fever,  which 
rages  on  that  coast,  is  to  strangers;  they  knew  all  the 
hardships,  all  the  grief  that  would  attend  such  an  aposto- 
late — nothing  could  daunt  them.  Such  sufferings,  such 
a  martyrdom,  silent  but  deadly,  is,  next  to  obedience,  their 
chief  ambition.  All  solicited  this  post  of  honor,  but  it 
was  the  Superior  who  had  to  determine,  and  each  one 
awaited  the  decision,  hoping,  through  his  prayers  to 
God,  to  obtain  the  preference. 

On  the  25th  of  April,  1852,  Father  Hus,  appointed  Su- 
perior of  the  Mission  of  Cayenne,  together  with  Fathers 
Morez  and  Ringot  and  two  Brothers,  set  sail  from  Brest 
with  the  fii'st  convoy  of  convicts.  There  were  in  this 
detachment  thirty  political  prisoners,  two  hundred  and 
forty  liberated  convicts,  going,  of  their  own  accord,  to 
seek  a  better  fortune  in  the  colony,  and  three  hundred 
and  sixty  criminals  who  had  still  to  undergo  their  pun- 
ishment. There  were,  besides  the  officers  and  crew  of 
the  ship,  gendarmes  and  convict-guards  and  some  passen- 
gers, making,  together  with  the  five  Jesuits,  in  all,  seven 
hundred  and  eighty-three  souls.  The  three  Fathers  had 
the  happiness  of  saying  mass  every  day  during  the  voy- 
age.    Father  Morez,  writing  back  to  his  brethren,  says: 

"  On  Sundays,  one  of  us  would  celebrate  for  all  who  were 
on  board.  The  deck  became  a  church  ;  one  might  have  fancied  it 
a  grand  cathedral,  with  the  beautiful  sky  of  the  tropics  for  its 
roof,  and  its  floor  the  ocean.  Amongst  our  convict-parishion- 
ers thei^  are  men  of  all  trades,  and  some  skilled  musicians.  I 
need  not  say,  then,  that  during  the  mass  there  was  excellent  music, 
both  instrumental  and  vocal.  The  various  national  flags  on 
board  were  artistically  arranged,  by  the  sailors,,  as  an  awning, 
which  screened  the  priest  from  the  sun  and  wind,  whilst  cele- 
brating the  divine  sacrifice,  in  full  view  of  all  who  were  present; 
that  is,  of  the  whole  population  on  board.  The  behavior  of  our 
65 


830  HISTORY    OP    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

convicts  was  admirable.  Every  day  we  said  prayers  for  tLem, 
and  often  went  to  visit  and  converse  with  them.  Every  night  we 
Bang  together  the  litanies  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  The  captain 
was  delighted,  as  his  report  shows." 

The  good  missionaries  landed  on  tlie  20th  of  May — 
Feast  of  the  Ascension — at  the  island  of  Salut,  twelve 
leaujues  from  Cayenne,  after  twenty-four  days'  successful 
navigation. 

"The  Jesuits,"  says  Father  Morez,  "are  in  great  es- 
teem throughout  French  Guiana,  not  only  witli  the  blacks, 
but  with  the  whites.  They  have  left  memorials  of  them- 
selves in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  as  well  as  in  the  ar- 
chives and  monuments  of  the  country.  The  palace  of  the 
Governor  was  erected  by  them,  and  the  clock  that  belongs 
to  it  was  constructed  by  one  of  their  Brother- coadjutors. 
The  greater  part  of  the  churches  and  presbyteries  date 
back  to  their  time."* 

In  their  mission  at  the  prisons  of  Toulon,  the  Jesuits 
had  obtained  results  which  gave  good  hopes  for  this  new 
enterprise  at  Cayenne.  Already  have  we  seen  them  lis- 
tened to  and  respected,  during  the  voyage,  by  the  con- 
victs, who  joined  in  their  prayers.  Having  reached 
their  destination,  the  Fathers  shared  among  themselves 
the  various  classes  of  prisoners,  and  accompanied  them  to 
the  several  places  allotted  for  their  confinement.  Thus 
they  found  themselves  distributed  in  the  different  islands 
of  Salut,  Montagne  d'Argent,  and  de  la  M^re,  and  the 
distances  were  such  as  to  make  communication  both  diffi- 
cult and  rare.  The  Superior  remained  at  Cayenne,  the 
central  point  of  the  various  establishments. 

By  the  20th  of  July,  1852,  the  Father  residing  at  the 
Island  of  Salut  wrote  : 

*  Missions  de  Cayenne,  by  Rev.  F.  de  Montezon. 


GENERALSHIP    OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        331 

"Our  convicts,  for  the  most  part,  arc  doing  well;  they  attend 
faithfully  to  their  religious  duties,  prayers,  mass,  and  vespers.  I 
preach  twice  on  Sundays,  and  notice  great  attention  and  decorum 
in  my  audience.  I  hear  confessions  every  day,  from  morning  to 
night.  Every  Sunday  we  give  communion,  which  might  almost  be 
called  general ;   it  will  be  so  on  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption.'' 

Father  Herviunt,  who  had  charge  of  the  political  pris- 
oners, was  not  so  successful.  He  was  usually  received 
with  imprecations,  blasphemy,  and  personal  insults,  on 
account  of  his  character  of  Jesuit.  Perhaps  this  led  to 
a  fear  lest  he  should  fall  into  despondency  ;  for,  on  the 
18th  of  January,  1853,  he  writes  to  his  Superior  in 
France : 

"I  have  just  been  making  a  short  trip  to  Cayenne,  and  have 
returned  in  great  dejection.  Father  Boulongne  read  me  that  part 
of  your  letter  where  you  ask  if  it  be  true  that  the  missionaries 
are  discouraged.  Nothing  has  ever  made  such  an  impression  on 
me;  the  tears  are  still  in  my  eyes.  I  discouraged,  Reverend 
Father!  No,  thanks  be  to  God,  no!  I  have  never  been  so  happy 
as  since  the  first  day  of  my  landing  at  Guiana,  and  the  saddest 
day  of  my  life  would  be  that  of  my  recall.  Peace  of  mind  and 
heart,  union  with  God,  entire  detachment  of  spirit — these  are  the 
treasures  which  I  have  found  hei^e.  I  have  never  deserved  the 
honor  of  belonging  to  this  mission,  the  sublimest  that  can  be 
found,  because  the  most  crucifying.  It  was  you.  Reverend  Father, 
who  conferred  on  me  that  honor,  and  I  shall  bless  you  till  my 
dying  day." 

Some  months  afterward,  the  holy  missionary  wrote  : 

"All  my  work  during  six  months  has  only  amounted  to  the  Sun- 
day sermon  and  six  or  seven  confessions.  One  man  has  abjured 
Protestantism.  Several  have  asked  me  to  say  mass  for  their  par- 
ents; others  are  beginning  to  learn  their  prayers,  which  they  had 
forgotten.  Many  prejudices  have  been  removed;  blasphemy  has 
partly  ceased,  but  passion  still  burns  in  those  ulcerated  bosoms."  * 

*  Missions  de  Cayenne,  by  Rev.  F.  de  Montezon. 


332  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

Father  Herviant  had,  therefore,  some  reason  to  hope 
that  he  would  eventually  succeed  in  winning  these  reluct- 
ant souls,  and  that  his  mission  would  not  remain  forever 
sterile.  In  the  mean  time,  he  paid  some  attention  to  the 
unbelieving  natives  of  Guiana,  whose  language  he  began 
to  study,  consulting  in  this,  however,  as  in  all  other 
things,  the  wishes  of  his  superiors. 

Piedmont  had  driven  out  the  Jesuits,  as  being  behind 
the  asre  in  education.  The  truth  is.  that  it  had  a  re- 
ligious  revolution  to  effect ;  there  were  the  temporalities 
of  the  Church  to  be  confiscated,  religious  orders  to  be 
suppressed,  its  independence  of  the  Holy  See  to  be  pro- 
claimed, and  the  Jesuits  were  only  in  the  way.  Besides, 
what  could  the  revolution  make  of  the  young  men  trained 
in  their  colleges  ?  So  the  society  was  banished,  and  its 
property  appropriated.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were 
invited  to  Rhenish  Prussia.  The  venerable  curate  of 
the  parish  of  St.  Nicholas — Aix-la-Chapelle — Abbe  Nel- 
lessen,  gave  them  a  house  which  he  owned,  and  thanked 
God  that,  at  last,  he  saw  them  established  in  the  city 
which  he  so  much  loved. 

'  At  Rome,  matters  hastened  to  a  crisis.  The  revolu- 
tion began  shortly  after  the  downfall  of  Louis  Philippe, 
in  1848.  The  Jesuits  were  openly  attacked,  and  finally 
forced  to  leave  the  Eternal  City.  Their  General,  Father 
Roothaan,  improved  the  occasion  of  his  banishment  by 
visiting  several  proyinces  of  his  Order  —  France,  Bel- 
gium, England,  and  Ireland.  Not  long  after  he  had 
fled,  the  Sovereign  Pontifi"  himself,  a  prisoner  in  his  own 
palace,  succeeded  in  escaping  to  Gaeta,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Naples.  The  other  religious  orders  were  also  ban- 
ished. In  1849,  the  French  army  defeated  the  revolu- 
tion, order  was  reestablished,  and  the  society  regained 
possession  of  its  houses,  churches,  and  colleges.  In  the 
month  of  April,  1850,  the  Pope  returned  to  the  Vatican 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER    JOHN    ROOTHAAN.        333 

amidst  the  enthusiastic   phiiiJits   of  the  Romans,   and  to 
the  great  joy  and  consolation  of  the  Catliolic  world. 

In  the  same  year,  1850,  Pius  IX  nominated  the  cele- 
brated Father  John  Larkin,  Bisliop  of  Toronto,  Canada. 
The  humble  Jesuit,  alarmed  at  the  burden  which  the 
Holy  Father  wished  to  place  upon  his  shoulders,  en- 
treated the  Father-General  to  effect  his  release,  and  him- 
self hastened  to  Kome  to  implore  the  favor.  Arrived  in 
France,  he  heard  that  Father  Eoothaan  had  succeeded 
in  havin<^'  his  refusal  accepted  in  the  Pontifical  court; 
and,  retracing  his  steps,  he  returned  to  America.  In 
184G,  the  Jesuits  of  Louisville  had  transferred  them- 
selves to  New  York,  where  they  took  charge  of  St.  John's 
College,  Fordham.  Of  this  institution  Father  Larkin 
was  rector,  and  it  was  with  the  greatest  joy  that  he  re- 
sumed the  duties  of  his  office,  after  what  he  considered 
a  happy  escape. 

The  generalship  of  Father  Roothaan  had  been  lonj^ 
and  painful.  He  had  seen  the  society  expelled  a  second 
time  from  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Piedmont;  he  had  seen 
it  calumniated  in  France,  persecuted  by  political  fac- 
tions, deprived  of  the  privilege  of  teaching;  he  had  seen, 
at  Rome,  the  Pontiif,  first  a  prisoner  at  the  Quirinal, 
then  a  fugitive  to  avoid  worse  evils,  and  to  preserve  the 
freedom  of  his  spiritual  authority  ;  he  had  himself  been 
an  exile  from  the  Holy  City.  The  health  of  Father 
Roothaan  had  felt  these  rude  shocks.  On  the  8th  of  May, 
1853,  his  generous  soul  fled  to  God.  He  had  lived 
sixty-eight  years.  The  General  Congregation  met  on  the 
21st  of  June,  and  on  the  2d  of  July,  Father  Beckx  was 
elected  twenty-third  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
65* 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE   SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 


IN  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


(Seueralsljij  of  |atl]cr  |1ctcr  "gnh, 

TWENTY-THIRD    GENERAL. 
1853 — 1860. 

I. 

It  now  remains  for  us  to  take  a  brief  glance  at  the 
seven  years  that  have  elapsed  since  the  death  of  Father 
Koothaan.  For  the  religious  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
there  is  a  virtue  a  thousand  times  more  dear  and  precious 
than  life — it  is  humility.  Our  task  becomes  the  more 
delicate,  for,  in  speaking  of  the  living,  it  is  difficult  to 
avoid  injustice  without  wounding  modesty.  Let  us  en- 
deavor to  pass  between  these  two  dangers  without  incur- 
ring either. 

The  health  of  Father  de  Ravignan  not  allowing  him 
to  continue  his  conferences  at  Notre  Dame,  he  restricted 
himself  to  a  few  instructions  in  convent  chapels,  small 
enough  for  his  feeble  voice,  and  he  gave  every  year  a  re- 
treat to  noble  ladies  in  the  chapel  of  the  Sacred  Heart, 
Rue  de  Varennes.  These  retreats  effected  great  good. 
Every  year  they  gave  to  some  the  light  of  faith,  to  others 
a  happy  return  to  the  practice  of  neglected  duties. 

As  for  the  men  whom  he  converted,  those  whom  he 
brouglit  to  the  Church,  the  souls  that  he  saved,  or  whom 
he  directed  in  the  path  of  perfection,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  estimate  their  number.  He  was  consulted  not  only 
from  all  parts  of  France,  but  from  all  p.arts  of  Europe  ; 
his  reputation  was  world-wide.     In  1855,  his  voice  being 


GENERALSHIP  OP  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     335 

somewhat  stronger,  he  could  defer  to  the  wishes  of  the 
court,  and  preach  the  Lenten  sermons  at  the  Tuilleries. 
He  did  it  with  as  much  apostolic  freedom  as  talent,  and 
the  p]mperor  thanked  him  accordin<ily.  After  the  course, 
the  latter  sent  the  Jesuits  of  the  Rue  de  Stvres  a  rich 
and  beautiful  chalice,  in  token  of  the  pleasure  given  to 
himself  and  the  Empress  by  the  sermons  of  Father  de 
Ravio-nan.  The  humble  Jesuit  needed  some  relief  after 
this  species  of  triumph.  He  went  to  the  Superioress  of 
the  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor,  and  asked  permission  to 
give  a  retreat  to  the  old  people,  men  and  women,  under 
their  charge,  on  condition,  however,  that  his  name  was 
to  be  kept  a  secret  from  all.  Such  was  the  humility  of 
the  illustrious  Father  de  Ravignan. 

To  him  we  owe  the  thought  of  erecting,  on  the  peak 
of  Corneille,  a  colossal  statue  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  in 
the  name  of  Our  Lady  of  France,  commemorative  of  the 
declaration  of  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 
All  hearts  caught  at  the  idea,  and  united  to  carry  it  into 
successful  execution ;  but  he  to  whom  France  owes  that 
beautiful  thought  was  not  to  see  its  realization. 

On  the  3d  of  December,  1857,  the  Feast  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  his  patron.  Father  Francis  Xavier  de  Ravignan 
fell  sick.  On  the  8th,  he  offered  up  the  holy  sacrifice 
for  the  last  time  ;  and,  after  more  than  two  months  of 
suffering,  borne  w^ith  edifying  patience,  he  died  the  death 
of  the  saints,  February  26th,  1858,  in  the  arms  of  Father 
Pontlevoy,  his  Superior,  his  friend,  his  spiritual  father. 
He  was  sixty -two  years  of  age.* 

This  death  brought  grief  to  every  heart.  The  people 
were  deeply  moved,  and  insisted  on  seeing  the  saint. 
Crowds,  consisting  of  ail  classes,  came  to  visit  the  remains. 


*  See  Vie  dii  Rev.  P.  de  Havignan,  by  Rev.  F.  de  Pontlevoy,  S.  J, 
(Paris,  18G0.     Douniol.) 


336  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

exposed  for  three  da3's  in  the  residence  of  the  Rue  de 
Sevres,  of  which  Father  de  Ravio-nan  was  an  inmate. 
Every  one  wished  to  have  something  that  had  touched  his 
body,  and  officers  in  full  uniform  were  seen  to  approach 
to  it  their  swords.  The  obsequies  of  this  celebrated  re- 
ligious were  a  real  triumph,  and  would  have  been  even 
more  so,  had  not  the  Jesuits  interfered  to  prevent  it. 
His  old  scholars  of  Friburg  wished  to  carry  the  bier,  and 
many  insisted  on  having  the  funeral  at  Notre  Dame  itself. 
This  his  brethren  would  not  allow,  but  they  could  not  pre- 
vent the  large  and  brilliant  concourse  that  attended;  they 
could  not  prevent  the  swelling  hearts  of  thousands  who 
owed  to  Father  Ravignan  that  which  is  most  precious  on 
earth.  All  the  illustrious  personages  of  the  capital  seemed 
to  have  come  together,  as  by  agreement,  to  do  honor  to 
the  humble  Jesuit,  whose  body  they  accompanied  to  its 
last  resting-place. 

In  the  preceding  year,  the  society  had  lost  another 
illustrious  member,  but  of  another  kind.  His  death  was 
chiefly  felt  among  the  learned.  Father  Arthur  Martin 
had  consecrated  himself  to  the  study  of  archaeology,  and 
had  acquired  great  celebrity  by  his  works,  in  which  he 
was  so  ably  assisted  by  his  colleague,  Father  Charles 
Cahier.  They  had  published,  conjointly,  the  Melanges 
Arclieologiques,  received  with  so  much  favor  by  those  who 
were  competent  to  judge  such  a  work  ;  and  the  Mono- 
graphe  des  vitranx  de  la  Cathedrole  de  Boiirge^^  which 
opened  a  new  door  to  science,  and  was  crowned  by  the 
French  Academy.  In  one  of  his  scientific  journeys.  Fa- 
ther Martin  was  suddenly  overtaken  by  death,  leaving  a 
great  void  in  his  special  walk  of  knowledge.  But  the 
learned,  like  the  apostles  and  martyrs,  always  find  success- 
ors in  that  illustrious  Order  which,  for  three  centuries, 
has  never  failed  to  produce  them.  Father  Cahier  con- 
tinues his  studies  and  his  works;  others  will  succeed  hirr. 


GENEBA-LSIIir    OF    FATHER    PETER    BECKX.  337 

The  Society  of  Jesus  has  always  comprised  every  kind 
of  genius,  Almighty  God  having  given  it  all  the  talents 
that  are  necessary  to  act  powerfully  on  all  classes  at  the 
same  time  ;  hence  we  have  seen  that,  where  it  was  allowed 
freedom  of  action,  it  regenerated  that  society  to  which 
its  action  fully  extended.  Father  de  Ravignan  was  the 
apostle  of  the  upper  classes  ;  but  there  are  others  for  the 
laborer,  the  poor,  and  the  ignorant,  and  none  can  dispute 
their  talent  for  makino-  themselves  listened  to  and  loved 
by  those  crowds  whom  they  teach  to  subdue  themselves 
and  to  conquer  human   respect. 

The  Jesuits  founded  an  association  for  mutual  aid  among 
artisans  and  laborers,  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier.  In  a  few  years  it  had  extended  itself  through- 
out the  world.  Those  who  belong  to  it,  unite  to  spend 
together  their  Sunday  evenings.  Priests  and  zealous  lay- 
men are  there,  to  divert  them  with  interesting  recitals, 
lessons  on  hygiene,  pious  instructions,  the  singing  of  can- 
ticles, to  reward  the  most  industrious  and  those  who  gain 
the  most  recruits,  and,  in  short,  to  do  them  a  great  deal 
of  good  and  save  them  from  a  great  deal  of  evil.  At  Paris, 
where  there  are  a  great  many  working-men,  there  are  such 
reunions  in  several  of  the  parishes. 

The  benevolent  associations  generally  seek  the  services 
of  a  Jesuit  for  their  annual  collections,  knowing  that  in 
such  a  cause  their  words  are  especially  effective.  Their 
charity  sermons  are  so  many  treasures  to  those  for  whom 
they  are  delivered;  if  it  were  not  so,  what  would  become 
of  the  poor  children  of  Gros-CaiUou,  should  they  lose  the 
apostle  of  their  association  that  sustains  them?  For  sev- 
eral years,  Father  Lefebvre  asks  for  alms,  on  the  same 
day,  in  the  same  church,  for  the  same  object,  and  every 
year  he  sees  the  collectors  gathering  up  a  richer  golden 
harvest  than  on  the  preceding. 

Since  the  Lent  of  1853,  Father  Felix  occupies,  with  the 


338  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

most  brilliant  success,  the  place  of  Father  de  Ravignan  at 
Notre  Dame.  Father  Felix  is  the  greatest  sacred  orator 
of  his  day;  he  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  man  of  the  greatest 
simplicity,  a  religious  of  the  greatest  humility.  To  the 
solidity  of  Father  de  Ravignan,  he  joins  brilliancy  of 
figures,  originality  of  ideas,  and  beauty  of  language.  He 
draws,  he  charms,  he  captivates  all  that  the  capital  has 
of  men  celebrated  in  the  sciences,  in  the  magistracy,  in 
letters  and  art,  in  politics  or  war.  The  nave  of  the 
cathedral  is  insufficient  to  contain  the  crowds  that  throns: 
to  hear  the  brilliant  and  fascinating  discourses  of  the 
eloquent  Jesuit.  His  retreats  preparatory  to  the  Eas- 
ter Communion  are  followed  with  the  same  enthusiasm; 
and  yearly  the  number  of  men  who  participate  in  the 
General  Communion  at  Notre  Dame,  on  Easter  Sunday, 
sensibly  increases.  That  is  the  highest  triumph  of  the 
Christian  orator.  In  this  year,  1862,  the  four  naves  were 
entirely  filled.  The  communion  was  distributed,  as  usual, 
by  the  Archbishop  and  Father  Felix  simultaneously,  and 
it  lasted  more  than  two  hours.  Seven  thousand  is  the 
number  calculated  to  have  taken  part  in  this  holy  cele- 
bration. It  would  be  easy  to  number  those  who  do  not 
owe  their  impulse  to  the  winning  apostolate  of  the  Jesuits; 
for  in  the  parishes,  where  edification  is  no  less  needed, 
the  confessors  advise  communion  in  the  parish  church, 
whereas  the  Jesuits  send  all  their  penitents  to  the  cathe- 
dral. It  is  a  powerful  means  of  overcoming  human  re- 
spect, and  it  is  a  grand  and  magnificent  spectacle,  which 
draws  other  thousands  to  witness  it;  of  many  it  not  un- 
frequently  determines,  or,  at  least,  prepares  the  con- 
version. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  form  an  idea  of  the  crowd  of 
men  that  besiege  the  houses  of  the  Jesuits  toward  the 
end  of  Lent,  and  one  often  wonders  how  the  health  of 
these   Fathers,  generally   so   delicate,  can   withstand   the 


GENERALSHIP  OF   FATHER  PETER   BECKX.  33D 

fati«;iie  of  hearing  so  many  confessions.  Wlicn  they  have 
been  engaged  in  that  occupation  during  the  whole  day, 
one  or  more  will  come  in  after  time  in  the  evening,  or  at 
night,  and  still  the  door  is  opened,  and  they  find  the 
Father  they  ask  for,  receiving  them  with  open  arms.  For 
a  sinner  returning  to  God,  a  Jesuit  never  admits  obstacle 
or  delay.  "At  any  hour  of  the  day,  at  all  hours  of  the 
night,  we  are  ready  to  assist  you,"  said  Father  Felix,  at 
the  close  of  one  of  his  retreats.  Father  Lefebvre,  who 
consecrates  himself  especially  to  the  direction  of  men,  was, 
one  day,  asked  how  many  he  had  sent,  for  his  share,  to 
the  General  Communion  at  Notre  Dame.  "About  eight 
hundred,"  was  the  answer.  The  Fathers  seem  never  so 
happy  as  when,  on  Easter  morning,  they  are  worn  out 
and  speechless  with  fatigue — that  is  their  alleluia  !  "You 
abuse  your  strength,"  said  a  friend  to  one  of  these  in- 
defatigable laborers;  "nature  can  not  bear  such  an  excess 
of  work."  ^'•After  me — another,''  was  the  simple  and 
almost  careless  reply.  His  Superior,  to  whom  it  was  re- 
marked, on  Easter  Monday  of  1859,  that  he  must  be  very 
much  fatigued  with  the  past  week's  labor,  answered : 
"Ah,  we  have  had  great  consolations!  There  have  been 
many  conversions;  our  ministry  has  been  blessed;  the  con- 
fessionals were  crowded.  The  Lord  be  praised  !  "  Of  his 
great  fatigue,  of  his  weak  health — not  a  word ! 

The  ministry  at  Paris,  during  the  winter,  is  overwhelm- 
ing. AVhen  a  Jesuit  is  exhausted,  they  give  him  a  vacation; 
they  send  him  to  preach  a  retreat  in  the  provinces.  So 
as  to  lose  no  time,  he  travels  by  night,  and  generally  as- 
cends the  pulpit  on  the  day  of  his  arrival.  After  the 
first  exercises,  he  is  called  to  hear  confessions,  and  thence- 
forth all  his  time  is  divided  between  the  pulpit  and  the 
confessional;  that  is  what  they  call  vacation.  One  day 
we  ventured  to  express  our  doubts  about  this  kind  of 
vacation,  and  one  of  the  Fathers  answered  us,  with  great 


3-40  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

simplicity:  "The  journey  orives  us  some  repose  and  a 
change  of  air;  and,  after  all,  we  shall  have  rest  enough 
in  eternity."  These  things,  to  read  them,  may  not  strike 
us  much;  but  when  we  see  them  carried  out,  it  is  im- 
possible to  restrain  our  admiration,  and  the  conviction 
that  the  life  of  a  true  Jesuit  is  the  Gospel  reduced  to 
practice. 

Almighty  God  leaves  no  gaps  in  the  ranks  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  A  warrior  falls  in  battle — another  steps  into  his 
place.  The  health  of  Father  de  Ravignan  had  closed  to 
him  the  pulpit  of  Notre  Dame;  but  Father  Felix,  with 
his  great  intellect,  his  bright  talents,  his  magnificent 
oratory,  mounted  the  breach,  and  the  enemy  fell  beneath 
his  blows.  The  retreats  at  the  Convent  of  the  Sacred 
Heart  were  not  to  be  discontinued  on  the  death  of  him 
who  had  commenced  them,  and  the  Father  who  replaced 
him  sees  the  ranks  of  his  hearers  as  full  as  ever,  and 
their  eao-erness  undiminished. 

11. 

In  Algiers,  Father  Parabere  had  attracted  the  admira- 
tion of  the  army  by  his  intrepid  bravery  on  the  field  of 
battle,  as  much  as  by  his  zeal  and  charity  in  the  hospitals, 
during  the  prevalence  of  the  cholera.  At  the  siege  of 
Zaatcha,  the  brave  Jesuit,  having  offered  up  the  holy  sac- 
rifice in  camp,  was  addressing  the  soldiers  with  his  usual 
ardor,  when  suddenly  a  storm  of  missiles  from  the  enemy 
whistled  around  him,  or  struck  the  ground  at  his  feet. 
The  brave  religious  did  not  appear  to  perceive  it;  his  words 
were  as  firm,  his  voice  as  ringing,  his  face  as  serene  as 
before.  "  He  did  not  even  wink,"  said  an  officer,  who  was 
an  eye-witness  of  the  fact.  After  the  capture  of  Zaatcha, 
the  General-in-chief  was  expressing  his  satisfaction  to  the 
superior  officers,  and  speaking  of  the  rewards  to  be  dis- 
tributed, when  all,  as  with  one  voice,  named  Father  Para- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     341 

b6re,  and  declared  that  not  a  single  officer  would  accept 
any  recompense  until  they  saw  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor  attached  to  the  bosom  of  the  eJcsuit,  in  testimony 
of  his  courage  and  devotion.  A  few  days  afterward,  this 
distinction  was  conferred,  and  the  soldiers  were  enthu- 
siastic in  their  applause. 

"Now,  that  is  what  I  call  right,"  said  a  Zouave.  "Fa- 
ther Parab^re  did  not  steal  that  cross — he  deserves  it. 
He  is  a  hero." 

Marshal  St.  Arnauld  knew  the  esteem  in  which  Father 
Parabere  was  held  by  the  soldiers  of  Africa,  and  he  re- 
membered it  on  receiving  the  command  of  the  Army  of 
the  East.  Jesuits  were  to  be  attached  to  the  diflferent 
corps  in  the  capacity  of  chaplains.  The  Marshal  requested 
that  he  whose  name  stood  so  high  in  Algeria  should 
form  one  of  the  number.  This  was  granted,  and  Father 
Parabere  was  named  Superior  in  the  Crimea. 

The  cholera  seemed  to  have  lain  in  wait  for  our  army 
in  Gallipolis.  Father  Gloriot,  one  of  the  chaplains,  will 
give  us  an  account  of  this  great  calamity,  and  he  will  un- 
consciously make  known  the  sublime  devotedness,  the  he- 
roic self-abnegation  of  the  Jesuit : 

"  The  cholera  has  attacked  the  troops  encamped  near  Gallipolis, 
numbering  about  ten  thousand  men.  We  were  not  prepared  to  re- 
ceive a  visit  from  this  terrible  scourge,  which,  by  an  unfortunate 
fatality,  commenced  by  cari-ying  oif  the  very  ones  who  were  best 
able  to  stay  its  ravages.  Two  generals  out  of  four  succumbed 
in  the  tirst  few  days,  seven  officers  of  health,  three  quartermas- 
ters, and  seventeen  infirmarians.  The  Apothecary-in-chief  and 
his  assistant  have,  also,  fallen  victims  to  the  disease.  I  was 
alone  in  the  midst  of  the  sick.  In  order  to  hear  their  confessions, 
I  was  obliged  to  kneel  beside  them.  Then  it  was,  that  I  best  un- 
derstood that,  to  save  souls  for  Jesus  Christ,  it  was  necessary  to 
suffer  with  Him  in  mind  and  body.  My  greatest  trial  was  my 
isolated  posUion.  I  remained  six  weeks  without  being  able  to 
confess ;  and  while  seeing  so  many  die  around  me,  I  had  not  even 
66 


342  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JSSUS. 

the  consolation  of  knowing  that  I  would  be  assisted  by  one  of  my 
brethren  in  my  last  moments.  Almighty  God  evidently  reserved 
me,  that  I  might  administer  to  so  many  souls  who  were  prepared  to 
die;   for,  if  the  trial  was  great,  great,  also,  were  the  consolations. 

"In  the  terror  occasioned  by  the  disease,  faith  was  rekindled  in 
the  hearts  of  many.  The  officers  were  the  first  to  ask  for  my  min- 
istry, and  they  sought  me  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night. 
Sometimes  I  heard  their  confessions  while  proceeding  from  one 
hospital  to  another ;  sometimes  I  found  them  waiting  for  me 
on  the  staircases  within.  There  I  would  seat  myself,  and  they, 
kneeling  down  beside  me,  would  receive  absolution  for  the  past, 
"When  they  perceived  me  in  the  streets,  they  would  dismount  and 
thank  me  most  affectionately,  adding,  "  If  I  am  taken,  be  sure  to 
come  at  the  first  warning."  Every  evening  we  had  a  religious 
ceremony  for  the  intei^ment  of  the  officers.  One  day,  when  there 
were  seven  or  eight  coffins  before  me,  and  all  the  regimental 
staffs  present,  I  asked  permission  to  say  a  few  words.  Standing 
on  a  tomb,  I  spoke  for  an  hour,  and  never  have  I  assisted  at  so 
moving  a  spectacle.  The  tears  flowed  freely  from  the  eyes  of  all, 
and  I  heard  nothing  but  sobs  from  those  around  me. 

"The  labor  had  exhausted  my  strength,  and,  although  I  had  no 
symptoms  of  the  disease,  I  was  reduced  to  such  a  state  of  weak- 
ness, that  I  could  not  move  about  without  the  assistance  of  a 
stick  or  a  friendly  arm.  I  was,  in  this  state,  trying  to  drag  my- 
self to  the  beds  of  my  poor  dying  soldiers,  when,  thanks  to  Divine 
Providence,  on  the  20th  of  July,  a  ship  appeared  in  the  road- 
stead, bearing  one  of  the  newly-appointed  chaplains.  The  Gen- 
eral of  Division  sent  him  instant  orders  to  disembark;  and  hav- 
ing staid  with  him  three  days,  to  initiate  him  in  his  duties,  I  set 
out  for  Constantinople,  where  I  have  been  for  the  last  five  days. 
My  strength  is  slowly  returning,  and  I  hope  soon  to  be  able  to 
resume  my  labors." 

The  devotedness  of  Father  Gloriot  was  that,  also,  of 
Fathers  Parabere  and  de  Damas — all,  indeed,  were  he- 
roes. 

Father  Parabere  was  attached  to  General  Canrobert's 
division  at  the  battle  of  the  Alma.  From  the  heights,  the 
Russians,  with  their  formidable  artillery,  played  into  the 
midst  of  our  troops,  drawn  out  on  the  plain  which  sepa- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     343 

rated  thcni  from  the  enemy.  Just  as  the  General  was  or- 
derinu'  the  Zouaves  to  attack  the  heiiihts  at  tlie  double- 
quick,  Father  Parab^re's  horse  was  killed  under  him. 
Canrobert  expressed  his  regret  at  not  being  able  to  re- 
mount him ;  but  the  Jesuit  was  not  going  to  be  left  be- 
liind  ;  for,  seeing  a  cannon  dashing  by,  he  mounted  that, 
and  was  carried  along,  at  a  headlong  gallop,  amid  the  en- 
thusiastic applause  of  the  soldiers  and  officers,  to  where 
his  dear  Zouaves  needed  his  services.  There  he  aliirhted, 
assisted  the  wounded,  con^led  and  absolved  the  dying,  in 
the  midst  of  the  enemy's  fire,  and  electrified  the  troops  by 
his  courage  and  devotion.  Throughout  the  war,  always 
camping  with  the  soldiers,  by  whom  he  was  beloved,  he 
never  needed  to  be  called  to  the  scene  of  combat.  At  the 
first  signal,  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  column 
that  was  first  to  be  engaged,  and  began  by  kneeling  down 
on  the  field  of  battle.  He  prayed  until  the  action  began, 
and  the  wounded  commenced  to  fall  around  him.  When 
off  duty,  the  pockets  of  his  cassock  were  filled — the  one 
with  bojihonSj  the  other  with  cigars — "  not  for  himself, 
observe,"  wrote  an  officer,  who  had  become  his  most  de- 
voted friend  ;  "for  he  never  uses  such  things;  but  for  the 
soldiers,  all  of  whom  would  willingly  die  for  him."  In 
their  admiration  for  him,  officers  and  soldiers  would  often 
say,  in  the  rough  language  of  the  camp,  "  Father  Para- 
bere  is  a  very  devil  for  courage.  He  is  brave  as  a  lion. 
He  is  superb!" 

Such  memories  never  die.  When  our  army  of  Africa 
was  summoned  to  Ital}^  their  first  cry  was  for  Father 
Parab^re.  As  for  Father  Gloriot,  after  having  accompa- 
nied the  remains  of  Marshal  de  St.  Arnaud  to  France, 
and  being  decorated  by  Napoleon  HI,  he  returned  to  the 
Crimea  to  resume  his  functions  of  chaplain  at  the  camp 
of  Gallipolis.  His  strength  did  not  correspond  to  his 
zeal  and  courage ;  and,  exhausted  by  his  labors,  he  died 


344  HISTORY   OF    THE   SOCIETY   OP   JESUS. 

the   deatli   of  the    brave,  in   the   accomplishment  of  his 
duty. 

Such  a  death  is  the  darling  ambition  of  the  Jesuits. 
They  like  to  expire  on  the  field  of  combat — to  die  in 
harness — and  if  they  can  be  among  those  whom  the  so- 
ciety sends  to  martyrdom,  their  most  heart-felt  wish  is 
obtained  ;  they  carry  heaven  by  assault.  Such  a  chance 
was  the  Cayenne  mission.  Their  feeble  health  resists 
with  difficulty  the  trials  and  labors  of  that  life,  and 
quickly  fails  before  the  pestilential  fevers  that  reign  in 
certain  localities,  and  the  yellow  fever  that  decimates  the 
colony.  The  apostolate  of  the  convicts  is  itself  a  mar- 
tyrdom for  the  Fathers  of  Guiana,  and,  therefore,  it  is 
an  employment  much  sought  for  by  the  heroes  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  Their  consolation  is,  that,  before  dy- 
ing, they  have  gained  souls  to  God,  they  have  worked  to 
His  greater  glory;  they  have  toiled  in  a  ministry  where 
mere  nature  sees  not  one  comfort,  and  where  God  alone 
can  appreciate  their  sacrifice.  Father  Etienne  Herviant 
died  at  Cayenne  on  the  12th  of  June,  1853.  Father 
Morez,  the  Superior  of  the  mission,  expired  at  Montagne 
d'Argent,  on  the  3d  of  October  in  the  same  year.  A 
new  station  was  established  at  St.  Georaes,  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  Oyapock,  for  the  most  intractable  of  the 
convicts.  Saint  Georges  is  a  place  where  there  are 
swamps,  the*  miasma  of  which  is  almost  certain  death  to 
Europeans,  and  which  negroes  alone  can  resist.  Father 
Louis  Bigot  was  assigned  to  this  mission,  on  the  19th  of 
December,  1853.  Of  one  hundred  and  eighty  felons  sent 
there,  several  had  died,  two  had  hung  themselves  in  de- 
spair, and  one  had  drowned  himself.  Some  of  them  were 
heard  to  exclaim,  "Ah,  that,  at  least,  we  had  a  priest!" 
Father  Bigot  wrote  to  his  Provincial: 

"  Scarcely  had  I  landed,  when  I  went  to  visit  the  hospital.     On 
seeing  a  priest,  the  poor  fellows  set  up  a  cry  of  joy — the  first,  per- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     3i5 

haps,  tliat  had  escaped  their  lipa  for  many  a  year.  'What, 
Father!  liave  you  come  to  visit  us?  But.  surely,  you  are  not  go- 
ing to  stop?'  'Most  certainly  I  am.  I  heard  in  Europe  that  you 
were  dying  without  the  sacraments,  and  that  you  sighed  for  the 
consolations  of  religion.  Well,  I  have  left  every  thing.  I  have 
travelled  thirteen  hundred  leagues  to  bring  you  those  consola- 
tions, to  point  out  to  3'ou  the  path  to  heaven,  and  to  suffer  and  die 
with  you,  if  necessary.'  These  few  words,  which,  I  assure  you, 
came  from  my  heart,  were  repeated  from  one  to  another,  and  Al- 
mighty God  was  pleased  to  bless  them  for  good,  and  to  cause  tlsem 
to  dispose  these  poor  criminals  to  profit  by  the  graces  Avhich  I 
came  to  offer  them.  The  arrival  of  a  Father  was  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  station.     Every  one  spoke  of  it, 

"Almost  all  the  convicts,  black  or  white,  who  are  not  in  hos- 
pital, come  to  mass  and  vespers.  They  seem  to  listen  to  the  in- 
structions with  a  real  desire  for  improvement.  They  are  far  from 
being  all  of  them  converted,  and  I  am  not  surprised ;  for,  accord- 
ing to  the  summary  of  their  trials,  with  which  I  have  been  fur- 
nished, they  have  a  long  distance  to  travel — thieves,  robbers, 
forgers,  murderers — such  are  my  dear  parishioners. 

"The  greater  part  do  not  know  the  'Lord's  Prayer.'  Is  it  sin- 
gular, then,  that  such  persons  do  not  at  once  make  application 
for  frequent  communion  ?  For  my  part,  I  wonder  at  the  workings 
of  Divine  Grace  in  their  souls.  I  see,  in  the  manner  of  their 
death,  the  proofs  of  God's  merciful  designs  in  their  regard ;  they 
inspire  me  with  an  intei-est  that  would  make  me  think  it  a  hap- 
piness to  die  in  their  service." 

It  was  not  long  before  Father  Bigot  enjoyed  that  hap- 
piness. 

After  having  converted  nianv,  whom  death  claimed  for 
his  own,  he  himself  went  to  receive  the  double  recom- 
pense due  to  his  apostleship  and  to  his  martyrdom,  on 
the  28th  of  April,  1854.  He  was  forty-seven  years  of 
age,  and  had  been  only  four  months  in  Guiana.  The  grief 
of  the  convicts  was  so  great  and  touching,  that  the  com- 
mandant interrupted  the  work  of  the  day,  so  as  to  allow 
them  to  be  present  at  the  funeral  of  their  Father.  They 
had  made  him  a  coffin  of  mahogany,  and  all  wished  the 


346  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

favor  of  bearing  the  body  of  him  whom  tbey  loved,  an 
Lonor  t]iat  was  accorded  to  the  infirmarians.  The  whole 
colony  attended  at  the  mass,  and  all,  officers  and  convicts, 
followed  the  venerated  remains  to  the  place  of  sepulture, 
which  was  in  that  part  of  the  cemetery  reserved  for  the 
authorities. 

The  tears  and  sobs  of  those  felons  seem  to  us  a  most 
beautiful  and  touching  panegyric  of  the  holy  Jesuit  who 
had  thought  it  "a  happiness  to  die  in  their  service." 

Father  Jean  Alet  landed  at  Cayenne,  February  17th, 
and  was  carried  off,  by  the  yellow  fever,  September  24th, 
of  the  same  year.  He  had  become  so  much  attached  to 
the  convicts  of  St.  Mary,  where  he  was  sent,  that  he  de- 
sired, as  a  favor,  to  be  buried  in  their  cemetery,  so  as  not 
to  be  separated  from  them  even  in  death.  His  wishes 
were  respected,  and  became  an  eloquent  and  fruitful  les- 
son for  the  whole  colony.*  The  deaths  of  so  many  mis- 
sionaries, in  such  quick  succession,  only  served  to  whet 
the  appetite  of  the  Jesuits  for  the  mission  of  Cayenne, 
which  belonged  to  the  French  Province.  AVhen  one  died, 
the  news  was  announced  to  all  the  different  houses,  and 
at  once  there  was  the  greatest  eagerness  among  all  to  se- 
cure the  happiness  of  dying,  in  their  turn,  among  those 
outcasts  of  society,  from  whom  men  generally  turn  away 
with  instinctive  disgust. 

The  Superior  of  the  residence  of  St.  Joseph,  at  Quim- 
per,  Father  Postel,  sighed  for  this  mission,  and  Provi- 
dence gave  him  a  signal  proof  that  the  inspiration  came 
from  on  high.  One  of  the  Fathers,  toward  the  close  of 
1857,  was  ordered  from  Quimper  to  Paris.  On  his  de- 
parture, Father  Postel  begged  him  to  see  the  Father- 
Provincial,  and  secure  for  him  the  first  vacant  post  at 
Cayenne.     The  health  of  Father  Postel  was  very  delicate  ; 

*  Missions  de  Cayenne,  by  Rev.  F.  de  Montezon. 


GENERALSHIP   OF    FATHER   PETER   BECKX.  347 

tliat  was  his  least  concern,  since  he  only  sought  the  mis- 
sion because  it  furnished  so  many  martyrdoms.  A  few 
months  afterward,  he  received  a  letter  from  the  Provin- 
cial, in  which  he  read  :  "  Are  you  ready  to  set  out  for 
Cayenne?  " 

Father  Postel's  answer  was,  "Yes;  when  may  I  start?" 

In  passing  through  Paris,  he  did  not  fail  to  thank  the 
one  who  had  so  well  pleaded  his  cause.  But  the  Father 
answered,  very  ingenuously,  that  "he  had  quite  forgotten 
to  do  so ! "  Could  the  will  of  God  be  more  clearly  and 
happily  made  known  ? 

In  less  than  a  year  after  leaving  France,  Father  Postel 
had  gone  to  heaven. 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  mission  of  Cayenne,  in 
1852,  not  less  than  fifteen  Jesuits  have  died  there,  victims 
to  their  zeal  and  apostolic  charity. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1859,  the  Father-Provincial 
received  accounts  of  the  death  of  two  missionaries  of  that 
colony.  On  sending  the  news  to  the  various  houses,  he 
received  in  return  eighty  applications  !  Two  heroes  had 
fallen.  Eighty  stepped  forward  to  replace  them  !  They 
were  Frenchmen  !  Only  two  could  be  chosen.  They  left 
Marseilles  on  the  15th  of  May,  for  Toulon,  where  they 
were  to  embark  the  next  day,  on  the  Amazoiie,  with  eight 
hundred  convicts. 

III. 

On  the  20th  of  September  some  one  wrote  to  the  Uni- 
vers,  from  Algiers : 

"  To-morrow's  steamer  takes  with  her,  from  Algiers,  the  Rev. 
Father  Brumauld,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  It  is  only  a  few  days 
since  a  letter  from  the  Father- Pi-ovincial  informed  this  worthy  re- 
ligious that  he  was  to  fill  the  office  of  Procurator  of  the  Missions, 
and  that  he  should  set  out  at  once  for  Paris,  his  new  residence. 

"  How  shall  I  describe  the  grief  caused  by  his  departure  ? 


348  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

"  Father  Brumauld  leaves  Algeria  at  the  age  of  sixty,  after  hav- 
ing passed  here  eighteen  years  of  his  life,  in  Avhichhe  consecrated 
to  the  care  of  the  orphans  all  the  zeal  of  which  his  great  heart 
was  capable. 

"Originating  in  our  colony  from  the  enlightened  charity  of  this 
good  Father,  this  work  has  had  a  great  development,  and  now 
possesses  the  two  fine  establishments  of  Ben-Aknoun  and  Bouf- 
faric.     ... 

"Marshal  Pelissier  understood  the  beauty  of  this  charity;  he 
cherished  and  protected  it;  and,  after  his  great  victory,  he  sent  to 
the  chapel  of  Ben-Aknoun  the  cross  wiiich  had  surmounted  the 
steeple  of  the  Russian  metropolis.' 

Father  Brumauld,  on  the  21st  of  September,  1858,  left 
Algeria;  but  the  good  work  which  he  had  originated  did 
not  expire  with  his  departure.  The  society  continued  to 
sustain  it.  It  is  true  that  the  asylum  destined  for  the  chil- 
dren from  Paris,  being  no  longer  recruited  by  government, 
there  was  reason  to  fear  that  this  noble  and  important  en- 
terprise would  have  to  be  discontinued,  which  drew  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  from  the  correspondent  of  the  Univers: 

"  Was  not  a  great  problem  solved  when  Paris  was  relieved  from 
this  unfortunate  and  often  terrible  population  of  abandoned  chil- 
dren, the  living  and  growing  centre  of  hatred  to  society — the  lever 
of  so  many  revolutions  ? 

"Was  not  a  great  good  effected  when,  after  having  cleansed 
these  impure  elements  through  the  salutary  influence  of  Catholic 
regeneration,  we  could  point  to  results  such  as  may  be  seen  at 
Bouffaric — a  population  of  young  men  preferring  a  rural  life,  hav- 
ing good  theoretical  and  practical  notions  of  agriculture,  bring- 
ing their  strong  arms  to  those  who  wish  to  employ  them,  and,  still 
more,  their  good  morals,  their  religious  spirit,  their  respect  for  au- 
thority— is  it  little  to  have  discovered  such  a  certain  way  to  wliat 
is  indispensable  in  a  scheme  of  colonization,  and  which  was  sought 
for  in  vain  elsewhere?     Such  was  the  work. 

"And  now,  who  knows  what  will  become  of  it?  The  children 
now  at  Bouffaric  are  those  which  the  good  Father,  of  whom  we 
speak,  brought  with  him.  In  spite  of  his  pressing  instances,  he 
could  never  obtain  any  more,  and  the  institution  is  dying  out." 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     349 

Father  Chable,  as  we  have  said,  opened  the  great  char- 
ity of  St.  Joseph-dcs-Alleinands — a  charity  which  succors 
so  many  poor  foreigners,  besides  many  from  Alsace  and 
Lorraine,  who  understand  and  speak  the  French  language 
very  imperfectly.  Of  all  these  there  must  be  at  least  one 
hundred  thousand  in  the  capital,  and  it  required  the  con- 
fidence of  a  Father  Chable  to  undertake  the  alleviation 
of  such  wide-spread  want.  In  these  few  years  this  noble 
work  has  greatly  developed  itself.  The  Sisters  of  Saint 
Charles  give  gratuitous  instruction  to  four  hundred  little 
girls.  They  have  a  night  class  for  young  working  women, 
numbering  eighty  attendants,  and  on  Sunday,  of  these  last, 
they  assemble  together  two  or  three  hundred.  The  sick 
are  visited  and  relieved — young  persons  out  of  employ- 
ment are  placed  in  respectable  work-shops  or  in  truly 
Christian  families.  By  means  of  subscriptions,  at  the 
head  of  which  are  found  the  names  of  the  Empress,  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  several  princes  of  Ger- 
many, Father  Chable  overcame  all  obstacles,  and  succeeded 
in  erecting  a  church  for  this  poor  flock,  of  which  he  was 
the  pastor.  He  built  schools  proportioned  to  the  number 
of  children  whom  he  had  adopted.  Exhausted  by  so  much 
solicitude  and  labor,  this  Father  of  the  poor,  whose  zeal 
was  indefatigable  and  his  charity  inexhaustible,  on  the 
11th  of  April,  1859,  went  to  receive  the  recompense 
promised  to  him  who  has  '■''labored  welV^  and  who  has 
'■^  run  his  coursed 

On  hearing  his  death,  there  was  not  a  single  German 
family  that  did  not  think  it  had  lost  its  all  in  this  father 
of  orphans.  The  grief  of  these  poor  laborers  could  be 
seen  in  their  tears  and  choking  sobs.  The  13th  of  April 
was  on  a  Wednesday,  and  hence  a  working-day,  but  it 
was  that  of  the  funeral  of  Father  Chable,  and  all  work 
was  laid  aside ;  the  shops  were  closed,  and  men,  women, 
and  children  went  to  assist  at  the  obsequies  of  their  bene- 


350  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

factor,  and  accompany  him    to   the  humble  grave  which 
"was  to  shut  him  out  forever  from  their  gaze. 

They  came  by  thousands.  Those  crowds  of  poor,  fol- 
lowing the  humble  hearse  of  the  holy  Jesuit,  weeping  for 
him  who  had  done  them  so  much  good  ;  whom  they  loved 
to  call  by  the  tender  name  of  Father  ;  whom  they  should 
never  again  see,  except  in  heaven — it  was  a  touching 
sight,  but  it  was  also  magnificent !  All  the  pomp  of  the 
world  could  not  equal  it;  the  most  eloquent  discourse  was 
nothing  to  the  tears  of  so  many  thousands  of  poor  laborers. 

Father  Modeste  has  succeeded  to  the  inheritance  of  Fa- 
ther Chable.  He  has  assumed  the  direction  of  >S^^  Joseph- 
des-AUemands,  and  he  carries  it  on  with  the  same  zeal 
and  devotion. 

There  is  another  good  work  which  the  society  alone 
could  undertake,  accustomed  to  be  stopped  by  no  obstacles 
where  there  may  be  question  of  the  good  of  souls.  Every 
one  has  seen  those  companies  of  acrobats,  rope-dancers, 
and  circus-riders,  who  go  about  from  town  to  town  and 
from  village  to  village,  for  the  amusement  of  the  public. 
The  greater  part  of  them  do  not  know  that  there  is  a  God  ; 
few  are  baptized,  and  many  are  ignorant  of  the  name  of 
their  parents  or  of  the 'place  of  their  origin.  The  Jesuits 
undertook  the  instruction  and  the  improvement  of  these 
wanderers.  And  they  succeed.  So  soon  as  a  troop  makes 
its  appearance  where  the  Fathers  have  a  residence, 
they  are  warned,  and  they  set  to  work.  They  make  ac- 
quaintance with  these  poor,  ignorant  souls,  gain  their  con- 
fidence, instruct  them,  detain  them  as  long  as  they  can, 
and,  when  they  are  sufficiently  prepared,  admit  them  to 
the  sacraments. 

This  kind  of  charity  has  borne  fruit  in  the  last  few 
years.  On  the  9th  of  September,  1858,  the  Bishop  of 
Laval  distributed  holy  communion,  in  the  Church  of  the 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     351 

Jesuits,  to  more  than  twenty  riders  of  the  same  company, 
and  four  young  women  of  the  same  band,  who,  modestly 
dressed,  received  the  sacrament  for  the  first,  or,  at  most, 
the  second  time.  Now,  it  is  no  longer  unusual  to  see 
these  acrobats  attending  the  parochial  mass  on  the  pat- 
ronal  feast  of  the  village;  and  at  Yincennes,  in  1858,  it 
gave  occasion  to  an  error,  which  caused  a  painful  humilia- 
tion to  a  young  person.  The  siviss,^  perceiving  her 
character  by  her  costume,  which  she  had  not  sufficiently 
concealed,  and  not  supposing  that  such  a  person  could 
wish  to  attend  high  mass  through  a  spirit  of  faith,  put 
her  out  of  the  church.  She  had  the  courage  to  bear  the 
afifront  without  complaining,  and  withdrew  without  losing 
any  of  her  serenity  and  modesty  of  demeanor.  It  proved 
the  solidity  of  the  instruction  which  the  Jesuits  had  been 
able  to  impart,  in  spite  of  obstacles  seemingly  invincible  ; 
and  it  proves  that  God  is  pleased  to  give  His  blessing  to 
their  efforts. 

The  general  indifference  which  characterizes  apprentices 
and  young  workmen  did  not  escape  the  observation  of  the 
Jesuits.  In  1858,  associations  were  organized  in  the  par- 
ishes of  St.  Etienne-du-Mont,  St.  Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, 
and  St.  Nicolas-du-Chardonneret,  for  the  purpose  of  main- 
taining these  young  men  in  the  practice  of  their  religious 
duties,  which  they  are  but  too  apt  to  abandon,  so  soon 
as  they  have  made  their  first  communion.  Every  Sunday 
they  assemble  in  the  chapel  of  the  Jesuits,  Rue  des  Postes, 
hear  mass,  listen  to  an  instruction  adapted  to  their  wants, 
and  then  go  to  spend  the  remainder  of  the  day  at  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Brothers,  Rue  Neuve-Saint-Etienne-du-Mont. 
There  they  find  various  games,  and  a  library,  amusement, 

*  One  who,  in  France,  is  charged  with  keeping  order  in  the  church 
during  divine  service. — Tr. 


352  HISTORY   OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

and  instruction,  instead  of  wasting  their  time  with  dan- 
gerous companions,  or  employing  it  in  work,  contrary  to 
the  commandment  of  God. 

IV. 

The  existence  of  the  Jesuits  in  Belgium  was  a  thorn 
in  the  side  of  Liberalism,  The  colleges,  which  saved  so 
many  young  men  from  becoming  the  prey  of  the  secret 
societies,  were  more  especially  made  objects  of  attack. 
Some  move  in  favor  of  liberty  and  fraternity  became  abso- 
lutely necessary.  The  dregs  of  the  people  were  assembled, 
and,  in  the  month  of  May,  1857,  precipitated  on  the  Col- 
lege of  Saint- Michel,  breaking  the  windows  with  volleys 
of  stones,  insulting  the  holy  religious,  and  giving  them- 
selves up  to  the  most  shameful  excesses  toward  the  Broth- 
ers of  the  Christian  Doctrine,  whom  they  accused  of 
Jesuitism.     And  this  was  called  a  victory ! 

The  vanquished  did  not  retreat,  they  did  not  even  give 
way  before  the  enemy  ;  they  retained  their  position,  and 
were  still  an  obstacle  to  be  removed.  A  new  attack  was 
concerted  for  the  month  of  October,  1858.  The  Jesuits 
have  two  houses  at  Brussels,  in  the  Bue  des  Ursulines  ; 
these  face  each  other,  on  either  side  of  the  street — the 
one  belono-ino-  to  the  College  of  Saint-Michel,  the  other 
serving  as  a  residence  for  the  Fathers.  A  hospital  for 
old  men  adjoins  the  latter. 

On  the  night  of  the  18th,  at  about  half-past  twelve 
o'clock,  a  violent  explosion  was  heard,  shaking  the  whole 
neighborhood,  breaking  the  windows  in  the  two  houses 
of  the  Jesuits,  terrifying  the  old  men  in  their  hospital, 
and  alarming  the  whole  city.  Every  one  thought  that  a 
piece  of  heavy  artillery  had  been  fired  near  b}'.  Imme- 
diately after  the  explosion,  some  one  in  the  street  was 
heard  to  cry  out,  '^7/  has  failed!'^ 

Windows   were   opened,  and  people  asked   each  other 


GENERALSHIP   OF    PATEIER   PETER    BECKX.  353 

what  was  the  meaning  of  such  a  noise,  at  such  an  hour  of 
the  night.  Three  men  were  in  the  street,  who  were  at 
once  joined  by  about  twenty  others,  all  well  dressed,  and 
appearing  to  recognize  and  understand  each  other.  They 
examined  the  house  of  the  Fathers,  and  then  the  college, 
without  paying  any  attention  to  the  adjoining  buildings. 
One  of  them  stooped  down  to  pick  up  something  on  the 
pavement,  when  another  was  heard  to  say,  quickly,  "  Take 
care!  it  may  go  off!"  The  dangerous  object  lay  just  in 
front  of  the  house  of  the  Fathers,  and,  in  the  midst  of  the 
fragments,  was  a  fusee,  still  burning.  This  they  picked 
up,  and  passed  from  one  to  another,  as  if  wondering  at  the 
failure  of  the  attempt.  The  police  soon  arrived  at  the 
scene  of  the  explosion,  a  crowd  was  assembling,  and  these 
suspicious  individuals  fled,  not  daring  to  take  with  them 
the  instrument  of  this  criminal  assault.  It  was  a  fulmi- 
nating bomb,  which,  had  it  had  its  full  effect,  should  have 
caused  the  utter  destruction  of  the  two  buildings,  and, 
perhaps,  the  burning  of  that  quarter  of  the  city.  It  had 
been  thrown  at  the  second  story,  and  had  left  a  mark  on 
the  wall,  which  it  had  blackened,  without  any  other  dam- 
age than  the  breaking  of  the  glass  by  its  partial  explo- 
sion. 

How  came  it  to  fail  of  its  full  effect  ?  No  doubt  be- 
cause Providence  watches  over  its  owu.  The  authors  of 
this  dastardly  deed  could  not  account  for  the  failure. 
The  police  took  possession  of  the  fragments,  and  insti- 
tuted some  researches,  but  with  no  success,  for  the  secret 
societies  have  means  of  evading  the  agents  of  those  gov- 
ernments that  tolerate  them. 

In  1859,  they  gained  a  triumph  over  the  Jesuits  of 
Ghent.  The  police  of  that  city  found  the  Superior  of  the 
College  of  St.  Barbara  guilty  of  an  infraction  of  the  muni- 
cipal laws.  They  had  a  billiard-table  for  the  private  re- 
creation of  the  students,  for  which  they  had  not  taken  out 
67 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

a  license,  A  Jesuit  college  was  placed  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  a  cafe!  But,  then,  it  was  necessary  to  indemnify 
themselves  for  a  rebuff  which  they  had  lately  received.  On 
the  3d  of  February,  the  Independence  Beige  had  published 
the  following  lines  : 

"  Dr.  Ducros,  formerly  physician  of  the  Hotel-Dieu,  at  Marseilles, 
recently  died,  leaving  a  rich  fortune  behind  him.  He  had  at  Paris 
a  sister-in-law,  a  widow,  with  two  young  children.  By  a  first  will 
he  had  left  his  nephews  a  large  legacy ;  but  a  second  will,  in  his 
own  handwriting,  of  a  more  recent  date,  divides  his  fortune  between 
the  IIotel-Dieu  of  Marseilles  and  the  Society  of  Jesus,  represented  by 
leather  Bernard,  ivho  has  come  on  from  Rome  to  substantiate  the  claim. 

"Dr.  Ducros,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  had  become  exceed- 
ingly devout.  He  almost  lived  in  church,  and,  for  forty  days  suc- 
cessively, had  served,  barefooted,  the  mass  of  a  Jesuit  Father.  It  is 
said  that  the  family  of  the  deceased  will  contest  the  inheritance." 

This  story,  being  sufficiently  ridiculous  to  insure  a  ready 
propagation  and  a  facile  belief,  the  administrative  commis- 
sion of  Marseilles  lost  no  time  in  contradicting  it;  and  the 
Independence  Beige  had  to  retract  its  charge,  with  the  ad- 
mission that  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  not  even  named  in 
the  will  of  Dr.  Ducros. 

Always  and  ever  calumny,  hatred,  and  persecution  ! 
The  spirit  of  evil  never  lays  down  its  arms  save  to  prepare 
for  new  assaults. 

In  Germany,  the  society  is  left  apparently  unmolested, 
and  is  both  loved  and  revered.  The  theological  school  of 
jthe  University  of  Innspruck  has  been  once  more  confided 
to  its  charge.  At  Vienna,  it  has  occupied,  of  late,  that  of 
philosophy;  and  a  correspondent  of  the  Gazette  de  Liege 
writes,  toward  the  end  of  3Iarch,  1859  : 

,','The  Lenten  sermons  tliis  year,  at  the  Church  of  the  University, 
•by  Fathers  Schmude  and  Klenkowstroem,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
promise  to  be  more  brilliant-^excuse  the  expression — in  every  re- 
spect than  the  preceding  year.     Every  day,  about  one  o'clock  of 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     355 

the  afternoon — the  sermons  do  not  commence  till  throe — yon  nip.y 
see  a  jostling  crowd  of  people,  and  trains  of  liveried  equipages, 
making  their  way  to  tlie  door  of  the  church.  Fortunate  is  the 
one — be  he  artisan  or  noble — who  can  secure  an  entrance  with- 
out being  uncomfortably  jammed.  Of  course  one-lialf  of  the  aud- 
ience must  pass  the  three  hours  on  their  feet,  since  there  are  not 
seats  for  more.  Among  the  regular  attendants  may  be  noticed  their 
Royal  and  Imperial  Highnesses  the  Archduchess  Sophia  and  the 
Archduke  Francis-Charles.  The  Emperor,  Empress,  and  their  court 
attend  these  eloquent  sermons  whenever  their  duties  permit  it." 

On  the  1st  of  May,  of  tlie  same  year,  Germany  was  de- 
prived of  Father  Joseph-Ferdinand  Damberger,  a  cele- 
brated preacher,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  draw  crowds 
to  the  Church  of  the  Theatines,  at  Munich,  and  who  had 
resided  of  hite  at  Scheftlam,  in  Bavaria.  The  literary 
world  is  indebted  to  him  for  his  Tableaux  GeneaJogiques^ 
his  Livre  des  Princes,  and  his  Hiatoire  Syncliroiiistique  du 
monde.  This  last  work  has  a  great  reputation  in  Germany, 
and  the  best  judges  consider  it  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
books  of  the  epoch;  and  their  only  desire  is  that  he  may 
find  a  successor  worthy  of  himself,  for  it  is  incomplete,' 
although  Father  Damberger  has  left  a  great  collection  of 
matter  for  any  one  who  may  undertake  to  finish  it.  Fa- 
ther Damberger  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-four,  having 
entered  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  1837. 

The  city  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  wished  to  erect  a  monu- 
mental church,  to  celebrate  the  definition  of  the  doonia 
of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  intending  to  confide  the 
sanctuary  to  the  care  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  plan 
having  been  approved,  one  of  the  wealthy  inhabitants  of 
the  city  offered  to  construct,  at  his  own  expense,  an  ad- 
joining residence  for  the  Fathers,  making  the  second  in 
Aix-la-Chapelle.  His  ofifer  was  accepted.  On  the  22d  of 
May,  1859,  Cardinal  de  Geissel,  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
assisted  by  several  other  prelates — among  whom  was  the 
Trappist   Abbot   of  Mont-des-Oliviers — laid   the   corner- 


356  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

stone  of  this  magnificent  edifice,  erected  in  honor  of  Mary 
Immaculate. 

In  Italy,  the  Jesuits  continued  to  do  good,  although 
they  foresaw  the  storm  that  was  about  to  burst.  Tlie 
revolutionary  fiood  swelled  and  rose,  but  could  neither 
break  nor  disturb  their  calm  serenity.  One  fine  day,  at 
Yelletri,  in  the  Pontifical  States,  they  are  surprised  to 
learn  that  they  are  thieves — nothing  less  !  The  affair 
stands  thus  :  The  Cathedral  of  Yelletri  possesses  a  mag- 
nificent image  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  covered  with  rich 
ornaments  and  splendid  jewels,  tributes  from  the  grati- 
tude and  devotion  of  the  citizens  of  Velletri.  In  the  com- 
mencement of  the  year  1858,  this  image  disappeared,  and 
the  rumor  spread  that  the  Jesuits  had  made  away  with  it. 
In  spite — must  we  say  in  consequence? — of  the  absurdity 
of  the  charge,  the  rumor  was  accredited  as  true.  Unfor- 
tunately for  its  originators,  the  noted  brigand  Vendetta, 
become,  through  his  misdeeds,  the  terror  of  the  district, 
sent  word  that  he  alone  was  the  author  of  the  theft,  and 
that  he  intended  to  retain  the  Madonna  as  a  hostage, 
until  the  authorities  sent  him  and  his  companions  an 
official  pardon  for  all  past  offenses.  The  officers  of  the 
government,  reduced  thus  to  parley  with  this  sacrilegious 
wretch,  declared  that  they  would  listen  to  no  more  over- 
tures until  he  had  restored  the  venerated  image.  The 
bandit  was  obliged  to  yield,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Vel- 
letri regained  their  cherished  Madonna. 

The  Jesuits  had  not  waited  for  this  result  before  re- 
questing permission  to  retire  from  Velletri,  since  the  credit 
so  easily  given  to  so  scandalous  a  fabrication  proved  that 
they  no  longer  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  citizens. 
The  Pontifical  Government  refused  their  application,  al- 
leging that  they  effected  too  much  good  in  that  city  to 
be  allowed  to  depart.  The  people,  ashamed  of  their  cre- 
dulity, would  themselves  have  risen  to  prevent  it. 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     357 

At  Rome,  several  persons,  distinguished  for  tlieir  zeal 
and  piety,  founded  a  seminary  for  the  education  of  Span- 
ish Americans  destined  to  the  priesthood.  The  Holy 
Father  wished  this  institution  to  be  under  the  control  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus  ;  and,  accordingly,  by  order  of  the 
General,  it  was  committed  to  the  Spanish  Jesuits,  who 
entered  on  their  charge  in  1858. 

In  former  times,  the  Benedictines  had  possessed,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Rome,  a  sanctuary  dedicated  to  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  called  Montorella,  which  was  abandoned  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  in  consequence  of  a  conflagration  in 
which  it  was  nearly  entirely  destroyed.  Father  Athana- 
sius  Kircher,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  as  celebrated  for  his 
virtues  as  for  his  science,  had  caused  the  church  to  be 
repaired,  and  a  residence  to  be  attached,  besides  giving  a 
foundation  for  the  expense  of  an  annual  retreat,  to  be 
preached  in  the  church  by  the  members  of  his  society. 
This  place  became  the  object  of  a  pilgrimage,  and  was 
much  frequented.  After  the  death  of  Father  Kircher, 
his  heart  was  deposited  near  the  high  altar,  as  an  inscrip- 
tion to  that  effect  still  testifies.  Since  that  time,  the  Jes- 
uits have  continued  to  hold  there  an  annual  mission,  on 
the  Feast  of  St.  Michael,  the  sanctuary  being  but  little 
attended  during  the  rest  of  the  year.  Pius  IX  put  an 
end  to  this  desertion  by  confiding  it,  in  April,  1858,  to  a 
congregation  of  Polish  priests,  reserving,  however,  the 
rights  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  who  still  give  the  mission 
established  by  Father  Kircher. 

V. 

The  new  See  of  St.  Paul,  United  States,  having  become 
vacant,  in  1857,  by  the  death  of  its  first  titulary,  in  1859, 
Father  De  Smet  was,  by  the  Holy  Father,  nominated 
Bishop  of  that  diocese.  The  humble  missionary  could 
not  be  prevailed  on  to  accept  this  honor,  in  which  he  was 
67* 


358  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 

supported  by  the  Father-General,  who  besought  the  Pope 
not  to  charge  the  society  with  such  burdens.  Pius  IX 
listened  to  the  reasons  advanced,  and  assented  the  more 
readily  to  a  change  in  the  nomination,  because  he  knew 
the  immense  influence  that  Father  De  Smet  possessed 
over  the  Indian  tribes,  and  the  great  good  which,  in  his 
character  of  missionary,  he  was  capable  of  effecting. 
That  influence  is  so  well  known  that,  on  more  than  one 
occasion,  the  government  has  called  it  to  its  aid,  when  de- 
sirous of  conciliating  the  savages,  exasperated  by  repeated 
injustice.  Every  year  the  advancing  tide  of  white  set- 
tlers encroaches  on  the  lands  reserved  to  the  Indians  by 
treaties  ratified  by  government  officials.  But  the  rude 
spirits  of  the  border  refuse  to  be  bound  by  clauses  in 
favor  of  the  red  man ;  hence,  renewed  encroachments, 
difficulties,  reprisals,  and  the  final  uprising  of  a  savage 
tribe,  which  must  be  put  down  by  force  of  arms.  Where 
the  Fathers  are  stationed  among  them,  there  is  more  pa- 
tience on  the  part  of  the  savage,  if  not  more  justice  from 
the  whites  ;  and  the  voice  of  the  missionary  is  listened 
to  and  obeyed,  when  arms,  perhaps,  might  be  of  little 
avail.  In  May,  1858,  Colonel  Steptoe,  when  marching  at 
the  head  of  a  small  expeditionary  column,  was  surprised 
by  the  approach  of  Father  Joset,  who  warned  him  that 
the  Indians  were  preparing  an  attack,  which  might  in- 
volve the  destruction  of  his  command.  To  warn  him  of 
his  peril,  the  Jesuit  had  undertaken  a  long  and  perilous 
journey;  and  more  than  one  danger  awaited  his  return. 
The  Colonel  listened  to  his  suggestions,  and  fell  back  ; 
but,  being  followed  up  by  his  assailants,  he  was  obliged, 
after  a  short  but  fatal  engagement,  to  beat  a  pre(;ipitate 
retreat,  leaving  his  baggage  and  artillery  in  the  hands 
of  his  savage  foe. 

In  September,   Colonel  Wright  attacked    and   defeated 
the  Indians  in  three  severe  combats,  but  was  mainly  in- 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     o59 

debted  to  the  influence  of  Father  Joset  for  briniiine,-  tliem 
to  terms  of  submission.  An  officer  of  the  army  in  Ore- 
gon wrote  to  the  Frcemans  Journal,  published  in  New 
York: 

"After  the  manner  in  which  they  are  treated  by  the  whites,  and 
even  by  the  officers  of  government,  it  is  hot  strange  that  the  In- 
dians should  fight  to  the  death.  At  Sillett's  Agency,  near  our 
post,  the  savages  die  in  great  numbers,  by  diseases  engendered  by 
famine  and  bad  nourishment.  Tie  other  day  they  sent  us  a  depu- 
tation to  complain  of  the  sterility  of  the  land  assigned  to  them, 
saying  that  they  preferred  death  in  battle,  to  death  by  starvation. 
Among  the  whites  of  this  region,  he  who  kills  the  greatest  number 
of  Indians  enjoys  the  most  consideration,  and  is  elected  to  the 
Legislature.  They  are  as  savage  as  the  Indians  themselves.  All 
the  difficulties  that  occur  in  this  country,  except  the  last,  are  the 
fault  of  the  whites.  The  most  brutal  acts  are  committed,  and  the 
authors  are  not  even  punished." 

The  missionaries,  seeing  the  resolution  of  the  savages, 
became  mediators  between  the  victors  and  the  vanquished, 
brought  about  the  submission  of  the  latter  on  conditions 
acceptable  to  the  former,  and  treaties  were  ratified  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  terms  proposed  by  the  Jesuits.  The 
Freeman  s  Journal  says  : 

"The  official  and  unofficial  reports  of  the  close  of  hostilities,  on 
the  part  of  the  Indians,  in  Washington  Territory,  attribute  the 
result  to  the  agency  of  llev.  Father  Joset,  S.  J.,  as  one  principal 
cause.  This  is  just,  and  bears  out  the  argument  we  used,  that  the 
military  force  already  on  the  Pacific  coast,  in  the  division  under 
General  Clarke,  would  be  ample  to  settle  all  troubles  with  the 
handful  of  bad  Indians,  if  government  would  only  strengthen  the 
hands  of  the  Catholic  missionaries,  and,  through  them,  give  assur- 
ances of  simple  justice  to  the  more  powerful  tribes,  who  are  not 
wickedly  disposed,  but  only  seduced  into  momentary  opposition  by 
a  sense  of  wrongs  committed  by  the  whites." 

In  another  issue  of  the  same  journal  we  read : 


360  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

*'  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  Indians  who  were  the  first  to 
revolt — such  as  the  Spokans — are  those  who  have  been  long  sub- 
jected to  the  influence  of  the  Methodist  missionaries,  and  who 
have  been  taught  by  them  to  hate  Catholicity.  It  is  sad,  but  it  is 
the  truth,  and  no  one  can  deny  our  assertion.  The  Spokans  who 
attacked  Colonel  Steptoe  had  been  under  the  influence  of  Method- 
ist ministers;  they  are  mortal  enemies  to  the  Catholic  mission- 
aries, whom  they  would  put  to  death  if  they  could.  Some  of  the 
Nez-Perces  are  Catholics,  and  others  are  well  disposed  to  become 
so,  but  the  majority  are  hostile  to  us.  Those  of  them  who  are 
Catholics  are  on  good  terms  with  the  Flat-heads  and  the  Pend'- 
d'Oreilles,  who  are  nearly  all  Catholics,  and  at  peace  with  the 
United  States.  The  Coeurs  d'Alenes,  the  Chaudieres,  and  some 
other  ti'ibes  of  that  region,  are  also  Catholics,  and  the  United 
States  have  no  better  friends  than  these  Indians. 

"The  mission  of  the  celebrated  Father  De  Smet  is  simply  to  con- 
firm the  friendly  Indians  in  their  good  dispositions,  and  to  use 
his  influence  to  bring  the  others  to  terms  of  peace.  This  truly 
apostolic  man  has  passed  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  among 
these  savages,  sharing  their  poverty,  their  fatigues,  their  defeats, 
and  their  wandering  and  wretched  life.  It  is  now  more  than 
thirty-seven  years  since  Father  De  Smet,  then  a  young  mission- 
ary, abandoned  the  noble  mansion  of  his  fathers  to  obey  the  inte- 
rior call  of  God,  who  destined  him  to  be  the  patriarch  and  apostle 
of  the  poor  Indians  of  the  United  States.  Last  Monday,  his  eye 
as  bright  and  his  step  as  firm  as  ever,  this  great  and  good  man 
took  passage  on  the  Isthmus  steamer,  in  company  with  General 
Harney,  in  the  humble  capacity  of  chaplain." 

Rev.  Father  N.  Cont^^iato,  Oregon  missionary,  writes  from 
Portland  on  the  29th  of  November,  1858 : 

"As  you  see,  I  am  not  dead  yet,  as  was  believed  by  many  in 
Oregon.  I  reached  Portland  some  three  or  four  days  ago,  after  an 
absence  of  about  three  or  foi^r  months.  I  was  on  my  way  to  San 
Francisco,  but  was  obliged  to  change  my  mind,  and  pass  the  winter 
in  Oregon.  Early  in  spring  I  shall  leave  again  for  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  My  journey,  though  very  full  of  dangers,  has  been 
more  happy  than  I  expected.  I  went  as  far  as  the  Missouri  River, 
and  made  about  four  thousand  miles.  When  I  consider  the  poor 
condition  of   my  health,  the  roughness  of   the  country  through 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     361 

which  I  travelled,  the  manj'  privations  to  wliich  one  who  travels  in 
a  wild  countrj'  like  this  is  snhjected,  I  am  astonished  at  myself; 
and  the  four  thousand  miles'  ride,  through  mountains,  woods,  plains, 
rivers,  and  deserts,  appears  to  me  like  a  dream  rather  than  a  real- 
ity. It  is  evident  that  Almighty  God  assisted  me  in  a  very  partic- 
ular manner,  through  the  prayers  of  my  friends.  Thank  God,  I 
have  been  very  successful,  too,  in  the  object  of  my  journey  ;  and 
besides  several  other  good  things  done,  I  have  succeeded  in  open- 
ing a  mission  among  the  Blackfeet  Indians.  At  Walla-Walla  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Rev,  Father  De  Smet.  We  spent  three 
days  together.  He  went  up  to  the  Coeur  d'Alenes.  The  last  In- 
dian Avar  has  done  a  great  deal  of  good  to  the  Catholic  cause  in 
this  country,  and  the  conduct  of  the  Catholic  missionaries,  during 
the  war,  has  dissipated  a  great  many  prejudices  from  the  minds  of 
many,  both  whites  and  savages.  Had  I  the  time,  how  many  edify- 
ing and  consoling  things  would  I  relate  to  you  on  the  subject!  I 
know  your  truly  Catholic  heart  would  rejoice  at  it." 

Since  1844,  Father  Joset  has  been  at  the  head  of  the 
Mission  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  situated  among  the  arid 
mountains,  where  dwell  the  Coeurs  d'Alenes.  One  of 
these  savages  lately  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Father-General 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus : 

"Mission  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  November  \st,  1858. 
"  To  the  Great  Chief  of  the  Black- robes: 

"  Great  Black-robe  Chief — I  do  not  know  you,  but  I  know  that 
you  are  the  Great  Chief  of  all  the  Black-robes.  I  am  a  savage  of 
the  nation  of  Skoyelpies.  The  whites  call  us  Chaudieres.  My 
name,  in  baptism,  is  Michael ;  my  wife  is  called  Mary.  The  Black- 
robes  have  left  my  people,  because  they  have  deserted  the  prayer  for 
whiskey  and  gambling.  It  is  not  our  fault,  Black-robe,  but  that 
of  the  whites  who  have  come  to  our  country  for  gold.  Before  the 
whites  came,  we  were  good  and  happy,  and  we  loved  the  Great 
Spirit,  whom  your  children,  the  Black-robes,  taught  us  to  know. 
That  time  has  passed  away.  I  and  my  wife  have  left  our  country 
to  follow  the  Black-robes.  We  know  the  prayer  (Christian  doc- 
trine) well.  The  Black-robe  Joset  has  taught  us  to  read  and 
write;  he  has  also  taught  me  French.  I  have  also  learned  to  sing, 
and  I  have  determined,  and  my  wife  with  me,  to  consecrate  our 


362  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

selves  to  the  spiritual  and  temporal  good  of  our  nation,  under  the 
control  of  the  Black-robes.  I  write  you  this  letter,  great  Black- 
robe  Chief,  to  beg  you  to  send  to  our  country  a  greater  number  of 
Black-robes.  All  the  red  men  love  them  and  wish  to  have  them, 
that  they  may  learn  the  prayer  and  to  know  the  Great  Spirit.  I 
pray  you,  then,  by  our  Savioui",  whom  you  love  a  great  deal,  and 
by  our  Blessed  Mother  Mary,  who  is  very  dear  to  your  heart,  to  have 
pity  on  us  poor  red  men.  We  are  poor  and  ignorant,  but  our  souls 
are  as  precious  as  those  of  the  whites.  Jesus  Christ  died  for  us 
also.  Your  heart  is  large  and  good,  great  Black-robe  Chief,  and  I 
do  not  doubt  that  my  wish,  which  is  the  wish  of  all  the  red  men, 
will  be  heard.  The  Black-robe  Congiato,  Great  Chief  of  the  Black- 
robes  of  my  country,  will  send  you  my  letter.  He  goes  to  the  land 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  will  return  in  five  moons.  I  hope,  great 
Black-robe  Chief,  that  you  will  send  many  Black-robes  with  him. 
The  hearts  of  your  red  children  will  then  be  very  happy.  I  will 
pray  to  the  Great  Spirit  to  touch  your  heart. 

"  I  bid  you  good-by,  Great  Chief  of  all  the  Black-robes. 
*'  Your  child  in  Jesus  Christ, 

"  Michael,  Skoyelpy  Chief." 

What  patience,  perseverance,  and  devotion  were  neces- 
sary to  "obtain  such  results  from  a  savage  !  But  we  must 
not  forget  that  Almighty  God  loves  to  bless  the  labors  of 
his  servants,  strengthening  them  with  the  assistance  of  His 
grace,  and  sometimes  with  striking  marks  of  His  favor.  A 
great  number  of  Germans  annually  emigrate  to  the  United 
States,  to  seek  an  honest  competency  by  their  talents  and 
industry.  A  Jesuit  Father,  of  their  own  nation,  has  de- 
voted himself  to  their  care,  with  a  zeal  and  a  charity  that 
have  gained  him,  in  that  country,  the  name  of  Apostle  of 
the  Germans.  Father  Weninger  is  known  and  revered 
throughout  all  North  America.* 

*Rev.  Francis  Xavier  Weninger,  born  of  a  noble  family,  in  Styria, 
in  1805,  was  ordained  in  1828,  and  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus,  at 
Gratz,  in  1832.  He  is  the  author  of  many  works — musical,  literary, 
catechetical,  polemical  and  ascetical.  Many  of  these  have  obtained 
a  wide  circulation,  and  have  been  productive  of  great  good.     In  1848, 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     363 

In  1853,  he  was  giving  a  mission  at  Gutemberg,  in  the 
Stnte  of  Iowa.  He  closed  the  exercises,  as  is  his  custom, 
by  planting  a  large  cross.  At  the  moment  of  its  erection, 
a  Protestant  lady  who  attended  the  ceremony,  through 
curiosity,  exclaimed,  "Look!  look!"  Every  one  turned 
in  the  direction  to  which  she  pointed,  and  all  were  struck 
with  astonishment  and  admiration.  The  sky  was  perfectly 
serene  and  clear,  and  on  its  pure  blue  was  seen  a  large 
white  cross,  most  distinctly  traced,  and  of  surprising  reg- 
ularity. The  spectators  continued  to  gaze  upon  this  ap- 
parition as  long  as  it  was  visible,  which  was  until  the 
mission  cross  was  planted,  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 
In  1856,  while  the  missionary  was  praying,  on  the  steamer 
which  bore  him  to  Minnesota,  the  same  prodigy  was  re- 
newed. In  1858,  the  Freemans  Journal,,  of  New  York, 
published  the  following  letter  : 

"Grand  Rapids,  Septemher  12M,  1858. 

"Rev.  F.  X.  Weninger,  having  closed  the  mission  which  he  had 
been  giving  at  Detroit,  in  the  churches  of  St.  Joseph  and  the  As- 
sumption, kindly  consented  to  give  one  at  Grand  Rapids.  Three 
German  parishes  united  to  participate  in  these  holy  exercises. 

"Such  was  their  earnestness,  that  many  came  from  great  dis- 
tances. The  local  press  thought  it  not  unworthy  of  their  atten- 
tion, when  they  saw  Germans  coming  to  Grand  Rapids  from  towns 
sixty  miles  off.  The  Bisliop  of  Detroit  honored  us  with  his  pres 
ence,  on  the  occasion  of  the  planting  of  the  mission  ci'oss.  On  the 
6th  of  September,  after  having  finished  the  exercises,  Father  Wen- 
inger started  for  Alpine,  Avhere  he  was  also  to  erect  a  cross, 
and  hear  the  confessions  of  those  who  had  not  been  able  to  attend 
at  Grand  Rapids.  On  this  occasion  an  extraordinary  event  oc- 
curred. The  cross  had  just  been  blessed,  and  was  on  the  point  of 
being  elevated,  when  one  appeared  in  the  heavens,  drawn  on  the 
blue  sky — large,  white,  distinct,  and  surrounded  by  a   crown  of 


he  came  to  America,  and  has  been  engaged  ever  since  that  time  in 
giving  missions  to  his  countrymen,  which  have  proved  as  fruitful 
as  they  are  laborious. — Tr. 


364  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OP    JESUS. 

light  clouds.  It  disappeared  so  soon  as  the  missit)ii  cross  had 
been  planted.  The  whole  concourse  of  people  present  contem- 
plated, in  profound  astonishment,  this  wonderful  apparition,  and 
the  least  credulous  were  heard  to  say,  'This  is  supernatural!' 

"Of  course,  I  know  that  there  will  be  some  critics  who  will  at- 
tempt to  explain  this  event  according  to  natural  laws.  To  these  I 
say  that  it  was  a  large  white  cross,  regularly  traced,  with  perfect 
branches,  and  appearing  in  the  midst  of  a  blue  sky.  If  this  phe- 
nomenon be  purely  natural,  why  is  it  seen  only  in  similar  solem- 
nities? Why  at  the  planting  of  a  mission  cross,  in  presence  of 
so  many  witnesses?  And  why  should  this  be  reproduced  for  the 
thii'd  time,  now,  in  the  five  years  that  F.  Weninger  has  been 
among  us  ? 

''The  apparition  was  seen  at  two  o'clock  P.  M.,  the  eve  of  the 
Nativity  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mai-y.  M.  Marko, 

"  Curate  of  the  German  Parish  at  Grand  Rapids." 

Father  Weninger  has  rendered,  and  continues  still  to 
render,  great  services  to  the  Church.  He  it  is  who  brought 
to  a  happy  close  the  schism  which,  for  so  many  years,  had 
made  the  parish  of  St.  Louis,  Buffalo,  a  scandal  to  the 
faithful.  Other  religious  orders,  besides  his  own,  yield 
him  their  esteem,  and  seek  to  profit  by  his  holy  teachings, 
in  retreats,  which  they  perform  under  his  direction.  A 
Benedictine  wrote  to  the  Freeman  s  Journal : 

"Abbey  of  St.  Vincent,  Penn.,  September  18th,  1858. 
"Yesterday  the  election  of  an  Abbot  for  our  monastery  took 
place,  and  I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  the  former  worthy  and 
venerable  Abbot,  Right  Rev.  Boniface  Wimraer,  has  been  re- 
elected almost  unanimously.  He  is  now  our  Abbot,  ad  dies  vitce. 
The  number  of  voting  priests,  and  clerics  in  sacred  orders,  has 
been  forty-three,  all  of  whom  had  previously  made  a  spiritual  re- 
treat, under  the  direction  of  Rev.  F.  X.  Weninger,  S.  J.,  the  cele- 
brated missionary  and  apostle  of  the  Germans  of  this  countr3^  I 
can  not  omit  to  express  publicly  our  most  hearty  thanks  to  him 
for  his  kindness." 

On  the  12th  of  October,  1858,  the  Inquirer^  a  journal 
published   at   Grand  Rapids,  announced   another  victory 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     365 

of  Divine  Grace,  in   consequence  of  the  prodigy  at  Al- 
pine : 

"  Lust  Sunday,  at  eleven  o'clock,  Mr.  Jacob  Schneider,  of  Al- 
pine, was  received,  at  West  Side,  into  the  communion  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church.  He  was  one  of  the  three  hundred  persons  mentioned 
by  the  Rev.  M.  Murko,  as  having  been  a  witness  to  the  apparition 
of  a  cross  in  the  heavens,  at  the  moment  that  one  was  being 
erected  at  Alpine.  This  miracle  was  the  cause  of  Mr.  Schneider's 
conversion  from  the  Lutheran  Church,  of  which  he  had  formerly 
been  a  member." 

Such  facts  speak  for  themselves. 

On  Sunday,  the  12th  of  December  of  the  same  year, 
the  Archbishop  of  New  York  preached  in  his  cathedral 
in  favor  of  the  American  Seminary  lately  founded  at 
Rome.  The  collection  was  such  as  the  occasion  re- 
quired, perhaps  lessened  by  the  fact  that  in  the  evening 
the  celebrated  Father  Larkin,  whom  all  loved  and  es- 
teemed, was  to  preach,  at  St.  James,  in  behalf  of  the  free 
schools  of  that  parish.  On  such  a  subject  the  Jesuit 
Father  would  be  eloquent,  and  the  place  was  crowded,  at 
an  early  hour,  by  an  audience  prepared  to  be  as  generous 
to  the  object  of  the  lecture,  as  they  were  certain  they 
would  be  charmed  by  their  favorite  lecturer.  When  the 
time  for  the  sermon  had  come,  the  Archbishop  appeared 
in  the  pulpit,  with  a  countenance  that  betrayed  his  emo- 
tion, and  the  people,  alarmed  and  anxious,  waited  eagerly 
for  some  word  of  explanation.  He  had  scarcely  com- 
menced, when  the  audience  seemed  thunder-struck — one 
moment  more,  and  tears  were  seen  to  flow,  and  sobs  were 
heard  from  all  sides.  The  venerable  prelate  was  himself 
deeply  moved ;  for  he,  too,  had  felt  the  blow  which  he 
came  to  announce.  On  Saturday,  December  11th,  Father 
John  Larkin  had  been  in  the  confessional  during  the 
whole  afternoon.  At  seven  o'clock,  he  withdrew  to  take 
some  refreshment,  intending  to  return  and  resume  his 
68 


S66  HISTORY  OF  THE    SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

labors  until  a  late  hour  of  the  night,  as  was  his  custom. 
One  of  the  Fathers  noticed  something  unusual  in  his  ap- 
pearance, and  asked  him  if  he  felt  unwell.  Father  Lar- 
kin  stretched  out  his  hand,  and  saying,  with  a  firm 
voice,  "  It  is  all  over  now,"  fell  into  his  companion's 
arms,  and  in  a  few  hours  expired. 

The  sanctity  of  Father  Larkin  was  not  less  than  his 
learning  and  eloquence,  and  his  loss  was  deeply  felt,  not 
only  in  the  United  States,  but,  also,  in  England  and  Ire- 
land, in  which  last  country  he  had  spent  three  years  as 
Visitor,  an  office  second  only  to  that  of  the  General  of  the 
Society.  From  1854  to  1857,  he  had  preached  retreats 
in  the  largest  cities  of  Great  Britain,  and  had  been  loved 
and  admired  wherever  he  had  gone.  On  returning  to 
New  York,  he  had  resumed  his  ordinary  labors  with  in- 
creased success.  The  loss  for  that  city,  especially,  was 
immense  ;  but  the  gain  for  him,  who  had  done  so  much 
good,  must  be,  indeed,  great. 

Not  long  afterward,  California  lost  one  of  her  most 
zealous  missionaries,  in  the  death  of  Father  Peter  de 
Vos,  who  was  born  in  Belgium,  1797,  and  entered  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  1828.  The  New  York  Freeman's  Jour- 
nal thus  speaks  of  this  deplorable  loss  : 

'•He  was  always  a  man  of  lively  faith,  sincere  piety,  and  inde- 
fatigable zeal.  The  cities  of  Ghent,  Alost,  and  other  places  where 
he  has  lived,  will  not  soon  forget  the  edifying  life  of  this  fervent 
religious.  When,  after  long  solicitation,  he  obtained,  at  last,  pei-- 
mission  to  go  to  America  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians,  in 
whose  salvation  he  was  so  much  interested,  his  health  was  so 
feeble,  and  he  had  so  frequently  spat  blood,  that  it  was  feared  he 
would  die  on  the  way.  But  Father  De  Vos  relied  on  Providence, 
whicli  preserved  him  for  yet  twenty  yeai-s  moi'e,  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  fatiguing  labors. 

"He  spent  many  years  in  the  ministry  in  Louisiana  and  Mis- 
souri. He  had  also  been  Master  of  Novices  in  the  novitiate  at 
Florissant,     In  1843,  his  ardent  desire  was  granted,  and  he  was 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     307 

pei'mitted  to  set  out  for  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  whicli  the  cele- 
brated Father  De  Smet  had,  some  years  previously,  opened  the 
road.  The  life  of  a  Jesuit  missionary  among  the  Indian  tribes, 
none  but  the  missionary  himself  can  understand.  The  dangers, 
the  privations,  the  labors  undergone  by  Father  De  Vos,  dur.ing  the 
eight  years  which  he  passed  among  the  Flat-heads,  or  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  AVillamette,  are  only  known  to  his  brethren,  and  to  the 
Divine  Master,  from  whom  he  is  now  receiving  his  reward." 

At  Buffiilo,  Father  Ryder,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
preachers  in  the  United  States,  and  very  popular,  set  the 
example,  which  was  followed  by  the  Catholics  of  St. 
Louis,  of  manifestations  in  behalf  of  the  menaced  tem- 
poralities of  the  Holy  Father.  His  example  found  many 
imitators  in  New  Orleans  and  other  places.  In  18G0, 
Father  Eyder  died,  to  the  great  and  lasting  sorrow  of  so 
many  who  had  known  and  loved  him.  But,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  ranks  close  up  very  quickly  in  the  valiant  army 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

We  shall  not  record  all  those  whom  that  society  has 
lately  added  to  her  long  list  of  martyrs,  in  the  recent 
massacres  of  Syria.  It  is  well  known  that  in  the  single 
town  of  Saida,  twenty  Jesuits  were  found  among  the 
killed.  In  China,  martyr  succeeds  to  martyr,  and  the 
zeal  of  the  survivors  gleams  and  burns  the  more  brightly 
and  steadily.  France  alone  has  given  seven  hundred  Jes- 
uits to  the  foreign  missions.  Those  whom  Italy  has  ban- 
ished, in  order  to  confiscate  their  property,  and  thereby, 
also,  to  attack  the  Papacy,  have  carried  their  zeal  to  In- 
fidel nations,  or  have  gone  to  reinforce  their  brethren 
whom  death  has  taken  away,  or  labor  exhausted.  The 
Jesuit  never  remains  idle.  Italy  rejects  them,  but  the 
Argentine  Republic  calls  for  them,  the  gates  of  China  are 
open  for  them,  the  island  of  Madagascar  receives  them 
with  gratitude,  and  Japan  will  not  long  refuse  them  ad- 
mission  into   a  country  over  which   the    society  may  be 


368  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 

said  to  have  acquired  inalienable  rights,  by  the  blood 
which  she  there  so  prodigally  poured  forth.  As  for  the 
governments  which  owe  their  existence  to  the  principles 
of  Red  Republican  revolutions,  the  Gospel  is  a  worn-out 
code,  and  the  simplest  thing  is  to  put  an  end  to  its  prop- 
agation. Accordingly,  their  first  cry  generally  is,  "Down 
with  the  Jesuits!  Away  with  the  Jesuits!"  For  three 
hundred  years  the  society  has  heard  this  '■'■  groan  from  the 
bottomless  piV,"  and  for  three  centuries  has  pursued  her 
course,  and  fought  the  good  fight  with  the  same  valor, 
fortitude,  and  heroism. 

For  three  centuries,  Protestantism  has  pursued,  with 
its  hatred,  the  Society  of  Jesus,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
was  forced  to  recognize  their  zeal,  their  science,  their  sub- 
lime self-renunciation.  It  envies  us  that  band  of  heroes 
which  numbers  on  its  rolls  eight  hundred  martyrs,  who 
have  given  their  blood  in  defense  of  the  Church,  or  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  ;  and  other  two  thousand,  at  least,  who 
have  sacrificed  their  lives,  in  public  calamities,  to  the 
service  of  their  neighbor. 

This  illustrious  society  has  given  to  the  world,  to  the 
Church,  to  Heaven,  St.  Ignatius  de  Loyola,  its  founder; 
St.  Francis  Xavier,  the  Apostle  of  the  Indies;  St,  Francis 
Borgia,  St.  John  Francis  Regis,  Apostle  of  the  Velay  and 
Vivarais;  St.  Francis  de  Hieronimo,  Apostle  of  Naples; 
St.  Aloysius  Gonzaga,  and  St.  Stanislaus  Kostka.  She  also 
counts  three  martyrs  of  Japan,  canonized  on  the  8th  day 
of  June,  1862 — Paul  Miki,  John  de  Gotto,  and  James 
Kisai.  The  Church  has  solemnly  proclaimed  Blessed, 
Alphonsus  Rodriguez,  Peter  Claver,  Andrew  Bobola,  John 
de  Britto,  Peter  Canisius,  Father  Ignatius  Azevedo,  and 
his  thirty-nine  companions,  martyred  on  their  journey  to 
Brazil.  Several  others  of  the  society  have  been  declared 
Venerable ;  that  is,  the  heroism  of  their  virtues,  or  of 
their  martyrdom,  has  been  proved  on  such  evidence,  that 


GENERALSHIP  OF  FATHER  PETER  BECKX.     369 

the  Congregation  of  Rites  declares  that  the  process  of 
their  canonization  may  be  pursued.  Among  those  mar- 
tyrs who  have  been  thus  declared  Venerable,  are  Rudolph 
Aquaviva  and  his  four  companions.  Among  those  who 
were  not  martyrs,  we  find  Joseph  Anchieta,  Bernardin 
Realin,  Louis  du  Pont,  John  Berchmans.  Many  others 
were  presented,  but  the  suppression  of  the  society  sus- 
pended the  investigation  for  more  than  half  a  century. 
Among  these  are  Gonsalvo  Sylveira,  Diego  de  Sanvittores, 
Charles  Spinola,  Mastrilli,  Vieira,  Pongratz,  Groclezki, 
Bellarmine,  Vincent  Caraffa,  Louis  de  Lanuza,  Andrew 
Oviedo,  John  de  Allosa,  Castillo,  Padial,  Luzaghi,  Baldi- 
nucci,  and  Joseph  Pignatelli. 

This  holy  chain,  reaching  from  the  present  even  to  the 
first  days  of  its  existence,  would  seem  to  prove  that  the 
Society  of  Jesus  has  always  remained  such  as  it  was  in 
its  birth,  preserving  the  spirit  of  its  founder  in  all  its 
purity  and  vigor. 

68* 


APPEN  D IX 

TO  THE 

History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

From  1862  to  1878. 


The  author  of  these  two  volumes  brought  the  History  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus  to  the  year  1862,  and  thus  covered  a  period 
of  three  hundred  and  twenty-two  years  from  the  time  of  its 
foundation  by  St.  Ignatius  of  Loyola.  It  is  evident  that  the 
immense  activity  of  this  celebrated  Order,  an  activity  which 
embraced  the  entire  globe,  and  extended  itself  to  every  depart- 
ment of  religious,  civil,  social,  literary  and  scientific  life,  could 
not  be  more  than  sketched  in  outline  in  the  volumes  before  us. 
Even  the  six  volumes  of  M.  Cretineau  Joly's  history,  magnifi- 
cent as  they  are  in  style,  leave  on  the  reader  the  impression 
that  their  subject  is  far  from  being  exhausted,  and  we  lay 
down  the  last  volume  with  regret  that  it  is  the  last.  But 
both  authors  give  us  enough  to  excite  our  admiration  for  the 
wisdom  which  conceived  the  idea  of  such  a  foundation,  and  of 
the  fidelity,  the  zeal,  the  heroic  self-sacrifice  of  the  men  whose 
duty  it  became,  in  successive  ages,  to  execute  that  idea  and  to 
realize  the  hopes  of  the  founder. 

Much  has  been  written  of  the  Jesuits,  both  in  their  favor 
and  in  their  condemnation  ;  and,  strange  to  say,  we  find  their 
panegyrists  in  the  ranks  of  the  Protestants  as  well  as  in  those 
of  the  Catholics,  whilst  they  are  not  un frequently  assailed  by 
writers  who  call  themselves  Catholics,  not  less  than  by  those 
who  profess  themselves  hostile  to  the  Church. 

It  is  not  our  intention  here  to  vindicate  the  society.     "  Non 

371 


372  HISTORY   OF  THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

tali  auxilio  nee  defensoribus  istis,  Tempus  eget."  All  we  say 
is,  that  we  have  lived  long  enough  to  know  that  the  enemies 
of  religion  instinctively  display  their  resentment  and  use  the 
most  disreputable  means  against  those  whom  they  fear  most 
as  antagonists,  and  therefore  we  know  how  to  interpret  the 
slanders  they  heap  upon  the  Jesuits.  And  as  to  the  few  truly 
good  and  sincere  men,  whatever  station  they  may  hold,  who 
have  been  unfriendly  to  the  Society,  we  can  only  use  the  veil 
of  charity  to  conceal  the  fault,  and  remember  that  even  the 
best  of  men  have  sometimes  been  at  variance  with  one  another, 
and  that  human  nature  is  prone  to  error  and  liable  to  be  de- 
ceived by  false  appearances.  "  Passione  movemur,  et  zelum 
putamus,"  says  the  wise  author  of  the  "Imitation,"  and  the  lives 
of  good  men  verify  the  saying.  Ask  the  man  who  violently 
assails  the  Jesuits,  whether  he  is  acquainted  with  them,  or  has 
ever  come  in  contact  with  them,  has  seen  them,  conversed  with 
them  ;  ask  him  whence  he  has  derived  his  information  concern- 
ing them,  their  rules,  their  works,  the  ends  they  aim  at,  and 
the  means  they  employ;  to  the  former  questions  he  will  answer 
in  the  negative,  and  for  the  latter,  he  will  point  to  writers  who 
manufacture  history  to  suit  their  own  theories,  and  who,  wit- 
tingly or  unwittingly,  carry  out  Voltaire's  maxim  :"  Lie,  lie 
again,  and  continue  to  lie ;  something  of  it  will  always  stick." 
We  do  not  claim  that  a  Jesuit  can  do  no  wrong:  he  is  human, 
and  prone  to  error  and  sin  like  other  men.  But  he  errs  and 
sins  not  because  he  is  a  Jesuit,  but  in  spite  of  his  being  one  ; 
he  goes  against  his  rule,  and  violates  the  whole  spirit  of  his 
institute  when  he  does  an  injustice  or  commits  any  offence 
against  religion  or  morality ;  and  no  just  man  will  blame  an 
institution,  holy  in  itself,  for  the  faults  of  its  members  when 
they  disregard  its  laws.  And  yet  this  is  done  every  day 
against  the  society;  and  because  its  members  have  been,  in 
general,  too  virtuous,  too  prudent  to  give  cause  of  complaint, 
false  accusations  are  fabricated,  believed,  and  repeated,  until 
they  pass  current  as  undoubted  history.  "The  end  justifies 
the  means,"  is  a  maxim  which,  we  are  told,  lies  at  the  very 


APPENDIX.  373 

foundation  of  the  Institute  of  St.  Ignatius  though  it  has  never 
yet  been  detected  in  a  single  one  of  the  countless  books  written 
by  the  Jesuits,  nor  has  it  ever  been  heard  from  the  lips  of  a 
single  one  of  the  many  thousands  of  them  that  have  lived  for 
the  last  three  hundred  years.  But  that  maxim  is  a  convenient 
battle-cry. for  their  enemies,  who  cast  it  into  the  teeth  of  the 
Jesuits,  whilst  they  themselves  carry  it  out  in  their  fallacious 
invectives  against  them. 

These  thoughts  force  themselves  into  our  minds,  as  we  gaze 
back  over  three  centuries  of  heroic  struggles  for  the  Church 
of  God,  by  a  succession  of  men  who  have  never  been  surpassed, 
and  rarely  equalled,  in  all  that  makes  man  truly  great  not 
only  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellows  in  this  world,  but  also  in  the  eyes 
of  God  and  of  heaven.  And  these  thoughts  find  their  natural 
expression  here,  where  we  propose  to  take  a  rapid  view  of  the 
present  works  of  these  men,  which  will  prove  that  the  Jesuits 
of  our  day  have  not  degenerated  from  their  heroic  ancestors; 
since  we  see,  on  the  one  hand,  the  same  learning,  zeal,  pru- 
dence, self-sacrifice,  and  devotedness,  and  on  the  other,  the 
same  hatred,  false  accusations,  and  persecutions. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  that  blessings  come  in  the  dis- 
guise of  calamities,  and  nowhere  has  this  been  more  strikingly 
verified  than  in  the  history  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  God  is 
stronger  than  Satan  ;  and  though  He  permits  Satan  to  vent  his 
wrath  against  the  just,  yet  when  the  storm  is  over,  we  find 
that  the  losses  are  more  than  compensated  by  gains  that  were 
neither  foreseen  nor  expected.  The  dispersion  of  the  Jesuits 
in  Switzerland  in  1847,  the  wanton  destruction  of  their  colleges 
and  houses,  were  deplored  as  a  calamity  almost  irretrievable. 
The  fathers,  scholastics,  and  brothers  were  scattered  homeless 
over  the  world.  America  gave  them  hospitality  for  a  time, 
and  it  was  hoped  that  they  would  find  there  a  field  of  labor  to 
console  them  for  their  exile ;  w-hen,  suddenly,  Germany  opens 
its  doors  to  receive  them,  offers  them  a  vast  empire  for  the 
exercise  of  their  zeal.  In  Switzerland  they  had  been  limited 
to  a  small  territory,  with  a  few  esta,blishments,  and  with  no 


374  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

hope  of  extension.  Their  number  was  small,  and  they  could 
not  increase  for  want  of  work  to  employ  new  members.  In 
Germany  they  soon  grew  into  one  of  the  most  numerous  prov- 
inces of  the  whole  society,  and  the  harvest  was  a  thousand-fold 
of  what  the  most  favorable  circumstances  could  have  given  in 
their  former  abode.  It  is  true  that  the  Protestant  government 
of  Prussia  would  not  permit  them  to  open  colleges  for  the 
education  of  youth  ;  but  it  was  far  more  liberal  than  the  Catho- 
lic rulers  of  Bavaria,  in  setting  no  limit  to  purely  spiritual  min- 
istrations; and  the  College  of  Feldkirch,  on  Austrian  ground, 
just  beyond  the  frontier,  more  than  restored  what  had  been 
so  ruthlessly  destroyed  at  Fribourg.  In  Germany,  two  large 
novitiates  were  hardly  sufficient  to  contain  the  novices  that 
flocked  to  the  standard  of  St.  Ignatius;  a  house  of  Third  Pro- 
bation was  established,  and  the  grand  old  Benedictine  monas- 
tery of  Maria-Laach  was  acquired  from  the  government,  and 
was  soon  filled  to  overflowing  with  young  Jesuits,  who  there 
studied  philosophy,  natural  sciences,  mathematics,  and  the- 
ology in  all  its  branches,  and  thence  sallied  forth  fully  armed 
for  the  battle  against  error,  in  the  various  domestic  and  foreign 
missions  confided  to  their  province. 

And  if,  in  the  crushing  persecution  now  raging  against 
everything  Catholic  wherever  Prussian  power  predominates, 
the  children  of  the  Church  manifest  a  constancy  and  a  courage 
worthy  of  the  days  of  the  ancient  martyrs,  much  of  this,  no 
doubt,  is  owing  to  the  growth  of  piety,  and  of  true  Catholic 
life  in  Germany,  produced  by  the  preaching,  the  writings,  the 
missions,  the  sodalities,  and  the  other  Apostolic  functions  of 
the  Fathers.  Meanwhile,  such  was  the  influx  of  rj^ew  members 
from  every  class  of  society,  that  the  province  of  Germany  was 
enabled  to  supply  many  of  the  colleges  of  France  with  much 
needed  assistance,  and  to  undertake  missions  in  foreign  coun- 
tries. Bombay,  Brazil,  Chili,  Ecuador,  and  the  United  States 
have  received  zealous  laborers  from  Germany,  and  religion  has 
been  preserved  or  propagated  wherever  they  appeared. 

During  the  wars  of  Prussia  against  Austria  and  France,  the 


APPENDIX.  375 

Jesuits   offered  themselves   to   accompany   tlie  troops ;    they 
labored   on   the   battlefield,   in    the   camp,  in   the    hospitals; 
some  even  sacrificed  their  lives  in  the  service.     Their  houses 
were  opened  to  receive  the  sick  and  wounded;  neither  expense 
nor  pains  was  spared  to  relieve  the  sufferers.     Yet,  when  the 
French  war  was  ended,  and  the  German  Empire  felt  itself 
securely  established,  so  that  its  rulers  thought  it  no  longer 
necessary  to  show  an  unfelt  friendliness  towards  their  Catholic 
subjects,  the  Jesuits  were  again  the  first  victims  of  persecution. 
Confiscation  and  exile  were   the   reward  they  received  from 
Prince  Bismarck,  and  all  their  works  were  again  destroyed,  to 
make  way  for  a  **Culturkampf,"  which,  though  but  a  few 
years  old,  already  begins  to  show  its  spirit  in  the  increasing 
demoralization  of  the  German  Empire.     The  Jesuits  were  the 
first  to  be  banished;  but  they  were  soon  followed  by  the  other 
religious  orders  and  congregations,  both  of  men  and  of  women  ; 
and  a  system  of  oppression  of  the  Church  was  inaugurated 
under  the  "  Falk  Laws,"  which  finds  no  parallel  ip  the  annals 
of  the  world  since  the  miserable  days  of  Julian  the  Apostate. 
And  yet  hardly  a  voice  is  raised  to  protest  against  this  tyranny. 
The  press,  the  great  boast  of  modern  times,  the  defender  of 
outraged  weakness,  the  scourge  of  oppressors  in  every  land, 
the  avenger  of  every  wrong,  the  stanch  and  invincible  vindi- 
cator of  social  and  individual   liberty,  the  press  is  silent  at 
the  sight  of  injustice,  oppression,  and  persecution  of  the  most 
barbarous   kind   exercised  by  Prince  Bismarck,  without  the 
slightest  cause  or  provocation,  against  the  most  sacred  rights 
of  his  fellow-citizens,  the  most  loyal  and  patriotic  subjects  of 
the  empire. 

Meanwhile  the  German  Jesuits  are  not  idle.  Their  foreign 
missions  gain  what  their  own  country  refuses  to  receive;  and 
the  young  men  are  preparing,  by  their  laborious  course  of 
studies,  now^  pursued  either  in  England  or  in  Holland,  for  the 
better  days  which,  no  doubt,  will  dawn  upon  Germany,  when 
the  present  persecutors  of  the  Church  shall  have  been  added  to 


376  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

her  former  enemies,  who,  in  successive  ages,  have  been  dashed 
to  pieces  against  the  rock  on  which  she  is  built. 

France  has  been  the  most  favorable  soil  for  the  growth  of 
the  society  in  modern  times.  From  the  small  remnant  of  the 
"Peres  de  la  Foi,"  who  seemed  to  have  providentially  pre- 
served the  seed,  we  now  behold  four  flourishing  provinces 
sprung  up,  each  almost  too  numerous  to  remain  much  longer 
undivided.  But  the  many  foreign  missions  draw  off  the  sur- 
plus ;  and  as  that  field  of  labor  is  boundless,  there  is  no  danger 
that  France  will  give  more  vocations  than  can  be  usefully  em.- 
ployed.  The  Levant  alone,  with  its  numerous  works  for  the 
good  of  religion,  gives  occupation  to  a  very  numerous  colony. 
China,  with  its  immense  territory  and  crowded  population, 
affords  matter  for  the  zeal  of  an  entire  army  of  missionaries. 
Africa,  with  its  islands  of  Madagascar,  Bourbon,  Reunion,  etc., 
and  other  portions  of  the  earth  still  shrouded  in  the  gloom  of 
paganism,  call  for  the  zeal  and  charity,  sometimes  for  the 
blood  of  French  Jesuits.  And  all  these  missions  are  cultivated 
with  most  consoling  results. 

In  France  itself,  the  activity  of  the  Fathers,  and  the  calls 
made  upon  it  from  every  quarter,  are  truly  wonderful.  The 
colleges  are  so  numerous  and  so  well  frequented  that  they 
recall  the  palmiest  days  of  the  old  society.  Twenty-four 
colleges  and  twelve  Episcopal  seminaries  are  in  their  hands 
in  France  alone,  besides  their  own  great  seminaries  of  Laval 
and  Vals,  in  which  the  scholastics  of  the  society  are  educated. 
Sodalities  for  every  class  of  people,  retreats  to  the  clergy  and 
to  the  Religious,  courses  of  sermons  in  Advent  and  Lent, 
pious  undertakings  of  all  kinds  in  favor  of  prisoners,  of  the 
laboring  classes,  the  "Little  Savoyards,"  the  orphans,  the 
soldiers,  the  "Apostolic  Schools,"  in  which  boys  who  mani- 
fest a  vocation  for  the  priesthood  are  gratuitously  educated, 
besides  many  other  works  devised  by  ingenious  zeal  and 
charity,  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  faith,  and  beat  back  the 
deluge  of  infidelity  which  continually  threatens  to  desolate 
the  country. 


APPENDIX.  377 

France  has  not  recovered  from  the  evils  inflicted  on  it 
first  by  Jansenism  and  then  by  Infidelity,  the  fruit  of  Jan- 
senism. It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  spirit  of  infidelity 
will  ever  be  entirely  banished,  or  the  principles  of  Voltaire 
and  the  Revolution  extirpated  from  the 'heart  of  the  nation. 
The  late  outbreak  of  the  Commune,  in  Paris,  proved  but  too 
clearly  that  the  spirit  of  1793  was  still  alive,  and  needed  only 
the  opportunity  to  reenact  the  scenes  of  the  "  Reign  of 
Terror."  But  if  the  Commune  of  Paris  hesitated  not  to 
imbrue  its  hands  in  the  blood  of  Christian  bishops  and 
priests,  the  bishops  and  priests  of  France  in  1871  proved 
themselves  the  worthy  successors  of  their  heroic  brethren 
of  1793;  and  among  them  the  five  Jesuit  Fathers,  Peter 
Olivaint,  Leo  Ducoudray,  Alexis  Clerc,  John  Caubert,  and 
Anatole  de  Bengy,  were  not  the  least  heroic  or  the  least 
celebrated.  They  were  cast  into  the  prison  of  La  Rouquette, 
together  with  their  Archbishop.  Mgr.  Darboy,  and  with  him, 
and  with  many  other  victims,  they  were  brutally  massacred, 
some  on  the  24th,  others  on  the  26th  of  May,  1871.  The 
tombs  of  the  five  Jesuits  in  the  Church  of  the  Fathers,  in 
Paris,  have  become  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  and  the  wonderful 
cures  and  other  favors  obtained  through  their  intercession, 
have  been  judged  sufficient  evidence  of  God's  will  that  they 
should  one  day  be  placed  solemnly  among  the  canonized 
martyrs  of  the  Church. 

What  the  future  has  in  store  for  a  nation  which  has  done 
so  much  for  the  Church,  it  is  impossible  to  foresee;  but 
we  must  acknowledge  that  the  society  in  France  has  la- 
bored with  unwearied  energy  to  secure  the  favor  of  heaven, 
and  to  avert  the  evils  i^diich  infidelity  never  fails  to  bring 
in  its  train. 

One  of  the  most  efficacious  means  for  this  purpose  owes 
its  most  powerful  application  to  the  zeal  of  Father  Ramiere, 
the  founder  of  the  *' Apostleship  of  Prayer,"  in  union  with 
the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus.  This  admirable  work,  so  easy, 
BO  simple,  and  yet  so  infallible  in  its  efficacy,  has  spread  over 
69 


378  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

the  entire  globe,  and  unites  into  one  common  cry  for  mercy 
and  grace  and  pardon  all  the  dialects  of  human  speech, 
and  sends  them,  like  the  voice  of  many  waters,  to  the 
throne  of  God,  borne  upward  on  the  mightier  voice  which 
pleads  divinely  for  "sinful  man,  from  the  tabernacles  where 
the  Heart  of  Jesus  remains  "  always  living  to  make  inter- 
cession for  us."  To  explain  this  powerful  agency  and  to 
propagate  it.  Father  Remiere  has  published  several  volumes, 
and  established  the  monthly  "Messenger  of  the  Sacred 
Heart."  His  works  have  been  translated  into  all  the  lan- 
guages of  Europe,  and  periodicals  on  the  model  of  his 
"Messenger,"  animated  by  the  same  spirit  and  having  the 
same  object  in  view,  are  now  published  in  Italy,  Spain, 
Austria,  Holland,  England,  and  xA.merica;  whilst  the  mem- 
bers of  the  "Apostleship  of  Prayer"  are  counted  by  mil- 
lions. This  has  been  the  means,  in  the  designs  of  God, 
for  the  propagation  of  the  devotion  to  the  Sacred  Heart 
of  Jesus ;  a  devotion  which,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
the  Blessed  Margaret  Mary,  was  made  known  by  our  Lord 
Himself,  and  by  Him  appointed  as  the  remedy  for  the  evils 
of  these  latter  days. 

Italy  offers  but  a  sad  record  for  the  society  during  the 
past  fifteen  years.  Its  five  noble  provinces  have  been  dis- 
persed by  men  who  preferred  to  fight  under  the  standard 
of  liberty,  and  whose  maxim  was,  "A  free  Church  in  a 
free  state;"  subject,  however,  to  their  own  interpretation, 
which  made  it  slavery  for  the  Church  and  misery  for  the 
people.  Wherever  the  new  kingdom  of  Italy  established 
its  power,  the  colleges  and  houses  of  the  society  were  seized 
and  suppressed,  the  Jesuits  ignominiously  .driven  away,  their 
libraries  sold,  their  lands  confiscated,  their  churches  closed 
or  given  to  others.  Garibaldi  destroyed  the  provinces  of 
Sicily  and  Naples  ;  Turin,  Venice,  and  Rome  fell  one  after 
the  other ;  and  now  the  Fathers  are  scattered  over  the  world. 
A  few  still  remain  in  Italy,  variously  occupied  by  the  bishops 
in   their   seminaries   or  parishes,  giving   retreats,  preaching, 


APPENDIX.  379 

writing,  teaching  m  private;  one  college  alone  remains  to 
them  through  the  protection  of  the  Prince,  whose  property 
it  is,  and  the  great  Roman  College  still  continues  to  draw 
crowds  of  students  to  the  lectures  on  theology  and  phil- 
osophy ;  but  all  its  literary  classes  have  been  seized  by  the 
government.  The  German  and  South  American  colleges 
are  suffered  to  continue  because  they  are  foreign  institu- 
tions; but  their  property  has  been  converted  into  almost 
worthless  Italian  bonds.  And  though,  when  Rome  lell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Piedmontese,  through  the  unprecedented 
injustice  of  September  20th,  1870,  the  law  of  suppression 
permitted  the  houses  of  the  Generals  of  Religious  Orders 
to  remain  unsequestrated,  a  special  and  most  odious  ex- 
ception was  made  in  regard  to  the  Gesu,  where  the  Generals 
of  the  Society  had  resided  for  more  than  three  centuries ; 
that  house  was  coniSscated,  and  the  Father-General  was 
turned  out  to  seek  shelter  where  he  might  find  it.  On  the 
27th  of  October,  1873,  the  very  Reverend  Father  Peter  Beckx, 
at  the  age  of  nearly  eighty  years,  venerable  not  only  for  his 
gray  hairs,  but  also  for  his  many  virtues  and  his  wonderful 
wisdom,  sadly,  tearfully  bade  farewell  to  the  home  of  St. 
Ignatius,  and  sought  an  asylum  in  one  of  the  foreign  col- 
leges in  Rome,  until  a  new  home  w^as  found  for  him  in 
the  quiet  little  town  of  Fiesole. 

The  Italian  government  had  not  the  hardihood  to  make 
war  on  science  in  the  person  of  the  celebrated  Father  Secchi, 
director  of  the  observatory  of  the  Roman  College.  He  was 
suffered  to  hold  the  upper  floor  of  the  college,  and  there 
continue  his  learned  labors,  since  he  could  not  be  bribed 
to  give  his  services  to  the  new  rulers,  where  they  might  have 
wished  to  employ  them. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  much  of  this  exceptional 
severity  exercised  in  Rome  against  the  society  was  inspired 
by  the  feeling  of  revenge  for  the  part  ascribed  to  the  Jesuits 
in  the  Vatican  Council.  They  had  the  honor  of  being  charged 
with  having  brought  about  the  convocation  of  the  Council ; 


380  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF  JESUS. 

of  having  directed  its  deliberations  by  their  skilful  manceuvres, 
and  drawn  it  into  the  definition  of  the  Papal  Infallibility, 
against  all  the  opposition  and  all  the  protests  of  the  great 
European  Powers.  We  now  know  what  to  believe  of  such 
charges;  but  we  cannot  help  congratulating  the  society  on 
this  glorious  distinction.  What  is  more  true  is,  that  several 
Jesuits,  such  as  Schrader,  Perrone,  Bollig,  Cambi,  Tarquini, 
were  placed  by  Pius  IX  on  the  various  committees  charged 
with  the  preparation  of  materials  for  the  discussions  of  the 
future  Council ;  that  when  the  Council  assembled  on  the 
ever  memorable  8th  of  December,  1869,  forty-eight  mem- 
bers of  the  society  were  connected  with  it;  eight  Jesuit 
bishops,  besides  the  Father-General,  had  deliberative  votes 
among  the  Fathers  of  the  Council;  three  Jesuit  Fathers 
acted  as  proxies  of  absent  prelates;  eight  Jesuits  were  among 
tlie  theologians  of  the  Pope,  and  thirty -one  others  were 
theologians  to  as  many  Jiishops.  And  it  is  also  true  that 
not  one  of  the  Jesuit  votes  was  cast  against  the  Decree  of 
Infallibility,  and  that  the  society  was  throughout  consistent 
with  itself  in  defending,  as  it  had  always  done  during  the 
whole  course  of  its  existence,  the  prerogatives  and  the  honor 
of  the  Apostolic  Sec.  If  this  was  the  cause  of  its  offending, 
the  exceptional  persecution  it  met  with  is  one  of  the  brightest 
of  its  many  trophies. 

The  Holy  Father,  Pius  IX,  was  deeply  wounded  by  these 
manifestations  of  hatred  and  violence  against  the  society;  and 
though  he  knew  how  much  the  Jesuits  were  opposed  to  honors 
and  dignities,  yet  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  give  the  society,  in 
the  face  of  an  unjust  and  ungrateful  world,  an  unmistakable 
token  of  his  esteem  for  it,  and  of  his  appreciation  of  its  ser- 
vices to  the  Church.  He  raised  Father  Tarquini  to  the  dig- 
nity of  Cardinal ;  and  when  this  eminent  and  learned  can- 
onist was  snatched  away  by  an  untimely  death,  only  two 
months  after  his  elevation,  Father  Franzelin,  the  modest 
but  erudite  Professor  of  Theology  at  the  Roman  College, 
was   chosen  by  Pius  IX  to  bear  the  same  honors,  and  was 


APPENDIX.  381 

forced  to  submit  to  his  elevation.  Father  Bollig,  who  is 
probably  the  greatest  linguist  of  our  day,  holds  the  post 
of  Librarian  at  the  Vatican,  a  dignity  which  has,  by  tra- 
dition, been  considered  as  a  preparation  to  the  Cardinalate. 

We  may  also  mention  among  the  glories  of  the  society,  in 
these  days  of  its  sufterings,  the  acquisition  of  such  members  as 
Monsignore  Negroni,  once  a  leading  member  of  the  Papal 
Cabinet,  and  Prince  Massimo,  one  of  the  highest  among  the 
Roman  nobility,  now  humble  priests  in  the  ranks  of  St.  Ig- 
natius. 

What  Italy  has  lost  by  the  dispersion  of  the  society,  has 
proved  a  blessing  to  other  lands.  The  College  of  St.  Pulcheria 
was  established  by  the  province  of  Sicily  in  the  very  capital 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  at  Constantinople.  The  islands  of 
the  Greek  Archipelago,  the  colleges  of  France,  Belgium,  and 
America,  the  missions  of  Brazil,  California,  Oregon,  and  New 
Mexico  have  to  thank  Garibaldi  and  Victor  Emmanuel  for  the 
zealous  preachers  and  the  learned  professors  banished  from 
Italy,  and  now  exercising  their  laborious  vocation  in  foreign 
and  more  hospitable  countries.  The  great  seminary  of  Wood- 
stock, in  Maryland,  opened  in  1869,  for  the  education  of  the 
scholastics  of  the  American  provinces  and  missions,  owes  all  its 
efficiency,  all  the  fruits  it  has  already  produced,  and  all  that  it 
is  yet  destined  to  produce  for  years  to  come,  to  the  great  and 
good  men  whom  Italy  was  apparently  no  longer  worthy  to 
possess. 

The  Spanish  province  of  Castile,  which  had  been  restored  in 
1814,  with  137  members,  had  grown  apace,  and  increased  to 
such  an  extent  that  in  1863  it  numbered  868.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  it  was  divided  into  two  provinces,  Aragon  being  sepa- 
rated from  it ;  and  now  the  two  provinces  grew  more  rapidly 
still,  so  that  in  1?68  one  of  them  counted  more  than  700,  the 
other  more  than  500  members.  It  was  then  thought  advisable 
to  form  a  third  province,  and  all  the  necessary  arrangements 
had  been  made  to  that  effect,  when  suddenly  the  revolution 
broke  out  whidi  drove  the  royal  family  from  the  throne,  and, 
69* 


382  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

as  usual,  drove  all  the  Jesuits  out  of  the  peninsula,  amid  the 
insults  and  outcries  of  the  rabble.  The  society  yielded  to  the 
storm  in  the  hope  of  better  days,  and  took  refuge  in  France, 
where  it  continued  the  work  of  forming  its  novices  and  scho- 
lastics. Many  of  the  Fathers  soon  found  means  to  return  to 
Spain,  where  tliey  resumed  their  labors  in  churches,  semina- 
ries, and  colleges  under  the  authority  of  the  bishops.  The 
territory  which,  for  some  years,  acknowledged  Don  Carlos  as 
its  sovereign,  welcomed  the  Fathers,  and  gave  them  full  liberty 
to  exercise  their  zeal.  The  present  government  of  Spain, 
though  not  openly  favorable,  yet  tolerates  them;  and  now  the 
colleges  and  houses  of  the  society  are  rapidly  multiplying, 
perhaps  only  to  be  sacked  and  destroyed  by  some  future  revo- 
lution. 

The  missions  of  the  Spanish  provinces  in  the  Antilles,  in 
South  and  Central  America,  and  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  are 
flourishing,  with  many  residences  of  missionaries  and  several 
large  colleges,  such  as  the  one  of  Manila,  and  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Belen  at  Havana.  But  the  current  of  events  has  not 
been  always  smooth,  and  persecution  has  not  been  Avanting  to 
the  sons  of  St.  Ignatius.  The  calumnies  circulated  by  Pom- 
bal,  in  South  America,  against  the  society,  have  not  died  out, 
and  Freemasonry  is  too  powerful  to  give  much  peace  to  the 
defenders  of  the  Church.  In  1873,  the  college  and  chapel  of 
the  society  at  Pernambuco  were  sacked  by  a  sacrilegious  mob, 
and  the  Fathers  were  scandalously  ill-treated.  In  February, 
1875,  the  college  and  church  of  the  Jesuits  at  Buenos  Ayres 
were  pillaged  and  burnt  down,  with  the  usual  violence  to  the 
inmates.  The  Fathers  have  also  been  expelled  from  Leon,  in 
Central  America;  and  Ecuador,  which,  under  the  wise  admin- 
istration of  the  great  Garcia  Moreno,  had  welcomed  the  Jesuits 
as  the  best  educators  for  the  youth  of  the  country,  has,  since 
the  fall  of  the  martyr-president,  shown  nothing  but  hostility 
to  the  society. 

The  province  of  Mexico,  the  smallest  of  all  the  provinces  of 
the  society,  has  been  kept  back  by  the  incessant  revolutions  of 


APPENDIX.  383 

that  unhappy  country,  and  by  the  savage  obstinacy  of  its  rulers 
to  repress  the  growth  of  religious  associations.  A  refuge  has 
been  found  for  the  few  Fatliers  of  Mexico  in  the  State  of  Texas, 
where  they  have  charge  of  several  missions,  and  have  opened  a 
college  at  Seguin. 

Protestant  England  might  put  to  shame  many  a  Catholic 
country  by  its  liberality  toward  the  society,  which  it  once  per- 
secuted to  the  death  as  its  bitterest  and  most  formidable  enemy. 
Tlie  penal  laws  are  a  dead  letter  on  the  statute-book,  never  to 
be  revived,  and  the  Jesuits  are  free  to  exercise  the  sacred 
ministry,  to  open  schools  and  colleges,  wherever  the  bishops  re- 
quest or  permit  them  to  do  so,  in  all  parts  of  the  British  Em- 
pire. England  has  Jesuit  colleges  at  Stonyhurst,  Beaumont, 
Liverpool,  etc.,  and  the  first  of  these  has  become  celebrated  all 
over  the  world.  Ireland  forms  a  separate  province  of  the 
society,  with  five  colleges  and  several  other  houses,  besides 
flourishing  missions  in  Australia.  Scotland  is  one  of  the  mis- 
sions subject  to  the  province  of  England,  which  has  charge 
also  of  the  missions  in  Jamaica,  Honduras,  Demarara  and 
South  Africa. 

The  British  government  has  shown  that  it  can  appreciate 
true  merit,  even  when  found  under  the  habit  of  St.  Ignatius ; 
and  hence  it  appointed  the  Jesuit  Father  Perry  to  conduct 
one  of  the  scientific  expeditions  to  observe  the  transit  of 
Venus,  on  Kerguelen  Island,  and  also  sent  him,  on  another 
occasion,  to  observe  an  eclipse  in  Spain.  The  English  Fathers 
have  displayed  a  most  praisev/orthy  activity  with  the  pen,  and 
the  writings  of  Fathers  Coleridge,  Harper,  Weld,  Morris,  and 
others,  nay,  the  laborious  researches  of  Brother  Foley  in  the 
Public  Record  Office,  published  by  him  in  several  most  inter- 
esting volumes,  have  been  received  with  great  favor  both  in 
England  and  in  America. 

The  provinces  of  Belgium  and  Holland  may  be  said  to  have 
prospered  beyond  expectation,  both  at  home  and  in  their 
foreign  missions.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Belgium  has  found  it 
necessary  to  open  a  second  novitiate  in  French  Flanders;  that 


384  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

it  has  fourteen  colleges ;  while  Holland  has  four  colleges, 
besides  a  number  of  residences  with  churches  attached  to 
them.  Belgium  has  still  the  honor  of  being  the  seat  of  the 
celebrated  body  of  Jesuit  Hagiologists,  the  Bollandists,  who 
continue  their  learned  labors  in  the  College  of  Brussels. 

Austria  and  Galicia  are  provinces  of  the  society  which  have 
continued  their  course  of  labors  for  the  education  of  youth  and 
the  good  of  souls,  though  under  the  constant  pressure  of  oppo- 
sition and  the  fear  of  violent  dispersion.  Josephism  still 
exerts  its  baneful  power  in  Austria,  and  the  Church  and  relig- 
ious orders  are  not  free  in  their  action.  But  with  all  these 
disadvantages  to  hamper  their  progress,  the  Fathers  of  the 
society  have  been  able  to  hold  their  position  in  the  theological 
department  of  the  University  of  Innspruck,  in  Tyrol,  and  to 
maintain  five  other  colleges  in  various  parts  of  the  empire, 
besides  the  three  colleges  which  are  subject  to  the  jirovince  of 
Galicia. 

Having  thus  passed  in  rapid  review  the  provinces  of  the 
society  in  Europe,  we  come  now  to  North  America,  which,  of 
late  years,  has  given  promise  of  becoming  one  of  the  best  fields 
for  the  labors  of  the  Fathers.  Little  did  Father  Andrew  White 
think,  when  he  landed  in  the  forests  of  Maryland,  in  1634, 
that  the  small  seed  he  there  planted  would  grow  into  the 
present  province  of  the  same  name.  Little  did  the  three 
Fathers  and  the  five  or  six  novices  think,  who,  in  1823,  left  the 
Whitemarsh,  in  Maryland,  and  floated  down  the  Ohio  River 
on  their  way  to  St.  Louis,  that  their  small  beginning  would 
develop  into  the  province  of  Missouri.  And  yet  so  it  was  to 
be,  through  the  smile  of  approving  heaven,  the  virtue  of  those 
heroic  men,  and  the  protection  of  a  wise  and  liberal  govern- 
ment. 

The  province  of  Maryland  was  founded  as  a  mission  of  the 
English  province,  when  Lord  Baltimore  established  his  Catho- 
lic colony  in  the  New  World.  The  Fathers  continued  to  come 
over  from  England  to  this  mission  until  the  time  of  the  sup- 
pression in  1773.     In   that  year  the  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the 


APPENDIX.  385 

London  District  sent  a  written  notification  of  the  fatal  brief 
of  Clement  XIV;  and  though  the  Fathers  might  have  pleaded 
that  the  document  was  not  applicable  to  them,  since  it  required 
every  bishop  to  communicate  it  in  person  to  the  superiors  and 
members  of  the  houses  of  the  society,  yet  they  submitted  to 
what  they  took  to  be  the  expressed  will  of  the  Pontiff;  but 
they  continued  their  good  works  as  before,  in  the  condition  of 
secular  priests.  Not  one  of  them  ever  doubted  that  the  society 
would  be  restored,  and  hence  they  took  measures  to  secure  the 
property  of  the  mission,  so  that  it  might  be  given  back  to 
its  original  owner  as  soon  as  the  society  would  be  revived. 
During  the  Colonial  administration,  it  wjxs  necessary  for  them 
to  act  with  some  degree  of  concealment,  as  the  penal  laws 
could  reach  them  at  any  moment;  and  they  were  sereral  times 
seriously  molested.  But  when  American  independence  had 
been  achieved,  no  hindrance  was  placed  to  the  progress  of 
the  society  in  the  United  States.  It  was  then  that  George- 
town College  was  established  by  Bishop  Carroll,  and  a  novitiate 
was  opened  in  1806,  in  which  year  the  Fathers  of  Maryland 
were  reunited  to  the  society  which  had  been  providentially 
preserved  in  Russia.  The  ancient  missions  in  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  were  continued  without  interrup- 
tion, and  most  of  them  are  still  in  the  care  of  the  Fathers  of 
the  Maryland  province,  the  rest  having  been  given  over  to  the 
bishops.  New  colleges  and  residences  have  been  erected  or 
taken  in  charge  at  Worcester,  Boston,  Baltimore,  Washington, 
Philadelphia,  Frederick,  etc.  The  scholasticate  at  Woodstock, 
Maryland,  was  begun  in  1869,  and  now  permanently  supplies 
a  want,  which  had  been  felt  from  the  beginning,  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young  members  of  the  society  in  America.  Besides 
this,  the  province  has  five  colleges  for  the  education  of  youth, 
one  novitiate,  and  fifteen  parochial  residences.  In  these  dif- 
ferent houses  there  are  293  members  of  the  province,  one-third 
of  whom  are  priests. 

It  is  due  to  this  province  to  add  that  its  College  of  the  Holy 
Cross  at  Worcester,  in  Massachusetts,  has   educated  a  great 


386  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

proportion  of  the  priests  of  New  England,  where  Catholicity 
flourishes  to  an  extent  that  is  not  surpassed  anywhere. 

Among  the  remarkable  men  of  the  province,  to  say  nothing 
of  those  who  are  still  living,  mention  must  be  made  of  the 
venerable  Father  John  McElroy,  who  died  at  Frederick,  on 
the  12th  of  September,  1877,  in  his  96th  year,  after  having 
spent  seventy-one  years  in  the  religious  life.     He  was  truly 
a  great  and  good  man,  full  of  zeal,  with  a  large  mind  and 
wonderful  energy.     In  one  way  or  in  another  he  is  one  of 
the  leading  figures  in  the  history  of  the  province.     His  works 
live  after  him  at  Frederick,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  will 
preserve  his  memory.     Fathers  Joseph  O'Callaghan,  Charles 
King,  George  Fenwick,  James  Ryder,  and  John  Early,"  have 
not  been  forgotten,  though  years  have  elapsed  since  their  de- 
parture from  this  world.     Father  Michael  O'Connor,  who  had 
been,  as  Bishop  of  Pittsburg  and  Erie,  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  learned  prelates  of  the  Church   in  America,  spent  his 
last  years  as  an  humble  religious  in  the  province  of  Maryland, 
and  lies  buried  at  Woodstock  —  a  perpetual  example  to  the 
succeeding   generations   of    his   younger   brethren,   who   will 
daily  see  his  modest  tomb,  of  generous  self-sacrifice  and  heroic 
renouncement  of  all  that  the  world  esteems. 

The  province  of  Maryland  gave  birth  to  that  of  Missouri. 
In  1823,  Father  Van  Quickenborn  was  sent  from  Whitemarsh 
with  a  small  colony  of  novices  to  the  far  West.  After  a  long 
and  wearisome  march,  they  reached  St.  Louis,  then  a  small 
trading-post  on  the  extreme  limit  of  civilization.  Thence, 
after  a  few  days'  rest,  they  went  to  their  new  home,  a  wild 
forest  near  the  village  of  St.  Ferdinand,  commonly  called, 
per  antiphrasin  probably,  Florissant.  A  rude  log-cabin  was 
erected  by  them  with  their  own  hands,  and  this  was  the 
cradle  of  the  great  province  which  has  since  grown  up.  There 
they  worked,  prayed,  studied;  thence  they  made  apostolic 
journeys  to  visit  the  scattered  white  settlers  and  to  preach 
to  the  Indians.  Before  the  year  1827  had  passed,  all  the 
novices    had    been    ordained    by    Bishop    R-osati,  and    their 


APPENDIX.  387 

superior  rejoiced  at  the  prospect  before  him  with  these  young 
and  zealous  cokiborers  at  his  service.     A  college  was  begun 
at  St.  Louis,  iu  1828,  and  in   the  following  year  its  classes 
were   organized.      This   has  since   developed   into   what   has 
been  loug  known  all  over  the  West  and  South   as  the   St. 
Louis  University.     For  many  years,  new  recruits  came  prin- 
cipally from  Belguim  and  Holland,  all  eager  for  the  Indian 
mission;  but  most  of  them  found  work  enough  among  the 
whites,  in  the  churches  and  colleges  of  the  province.     Father 
De  Smet  and  some  others  were  set  apart  for  the  Indian  mis- 
sions in  Missouri    and  in  the  Western  territories   as  far  as 
the  Rocky  Mountains;    and  many  of  the   missions  still  ex- 
isting in  these  distant  regions  trace  their  origin  to  him  and 
his   companions,  though   they  are   not  now  connected  with 
the   province   of   Missouri.     The   College  of  St.  Charles,  at 
Grand   Coteau,  in   Louisiana,   was   taken   in   charge   by   the 
superior  of  Missouri,  and  for  ten  years  formed  a  part  of  the 
mission  or  vice-province,  after  v/hich  it  was  restored  to  the 
province  of  Lyons.     St.  Xavier's  College,  at  Cincinnati,  was 
given  over  to  the  society,  in  1840,  by  Bishop  Purcell ;  and  it 
has  been  one  of  the  most  flourishing   Jesuit  colleges  in  the 
United   States.     St.  Joseph's  College,  Bardstown,  Kentucky, 
was  made  over  to  the  care  of  the  Fathers,  in  1848,  by  the 
saintly  Bishop  Flaget,  who  embraced  the  first  Fathers  that 
were  sent  to  him,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  while  he  exclaimed: 
"Nunc  diraittis  servum  tuum,  Domine,  in  pace."    The  dearest 
wish  of  his  heart  had  been  accomplished,  and  he  was  now 
ready  to  depart.     He  died  two  years   later.     The   civil  war 
put  an  end  to  the  labors  of  the  Jesuits  in  Kentucky,  and 
they  have  not  since  returned  to  that  State.     When   Father 
Van  de  Velde  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Chicago,  he  earnestly 
begged  for  a  colony  of  his  brethren  in  his  episcopal  city;  but 
it  was  not  till  after  his  removal  to  Natchez,  and  after  his  death 
there,  that  his  successor  at  Chicago  obtained  the  request.     In 
18.57,  two  Fathers  were  sent,  and  they  began  under  the  most 
unfavorable  auspices.     But  by  earnest  labor  and  persevering 


or 


388  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

energy,  they  soon  gathered  around  them  the  nucleus  of  a 
congregation,  which  is  now  hardly  surpassed  by  any  in  the 
country.  Schools  have  been  erected  in  five  or  six  places 
within  the  limits  of  the  parish,  and  from  5,000  to  6,000 
children  are  educated  in  them.  A  second  church  has  been 
built,  and  a  college  has  been  added  for  higher  studies.  The 
work  of  the  missions,  or  spiritual  exercises  preached  to  the 
people,  may  be  said  to  have  taken,  its  rise  here ;  for  though 
something  had  been  done  in  this  special  ministry  before,  yet 
there  was  no  permanent  organization  of  missionary  bands, 
always  ready  at  the  call  of  bishops  or  parish  priests,  to 
preach  the  exercises  in  their  churches.  It  is  impossible  to 
tell  what  good  these  labors  have  accomplished  in  the  conver- 
sion of  non-Catholics,  in  the  reformation  of  hardened  sin- 
ners, in  the  renewal  of  fervor,  and  the  increase  of  Christian 
virtue,  wherever  these  missions  have  been  given.  Some  idea 
can  be  formed  of  this  good  when  we  remember  that  two 
or  three  bands  of  missionaries  are  employed  all  the  year 
round,  spending  two  or  three  weeks  in  each  parish ;  and 
that  not  unfrequently  the  result  of  their  labors  in  a  single 
church,  is  a  number  of  communions  amounting  to  from 
5,000  to  15,000,  with  from  five  to  forty  converts  received  into 
the  fold.  Add  to  this  the  missionary  bands  sent  out  by  the 
province  of  Maryland,  by  the  mission  of  New  York,  and  by 
that  of  Bufialo,  all  of  whom  labor  with  the  same  assiduity 
and  the  same  results,  and  we  may  well  hope  for  the  pros- 
perity and  growth  of  Catholicity  in  the  United  States.  These 
missions  are  also  given  to  people  of  every  nation  who  have 
emigrated  to  this  country,  and  are  settled  in  colonies  over  its 
w^ide  domains.  Father  Weninger  has  labored  in  this  field 
for  thirty  years  without  interruption,  chiefly  among  the 
Germans,  from  Canada  to  Texas,  and  from  New  England 
to  Vancouver's  Island.  Father  Smarius  gave  his  best  years 
to  the  same  work,  and  by  his  eloquence  left  a  name  not 
soon  to  be  forgotten.  There  are  many  names  that  will  live 
in  the  memory  of  their  brethren  of  Missouri,  and  will  be 


APPENDIX.  389 

handod  down  as  precious  heirlooms  to  posterity,  with  the 
examples  of  every  virtue  and  the  renown  of  worthy  deeds. 
Van  de  Velde,  Elet,  Carrell,  Verhrcgcn,  Druyts,  Gleizal,  Ar- 
noudt,  Dumortier,  De  Smet,  De  Theux,  Helias,  Masseele, 
Van  Assche,  Gailland,  recall  the  memory  of  every  kind  of 
merit  both  of  mind  and  heart;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
we  have  not  a  detailed  biography  of  each  one  of  them.  But 
the  prayers  of  such  men,  now  in  heaven,  must  bring  down  a 
blessing  of  fertility  on  the  labors  of  their  successors;  and 
hence  we  need  not  wonder  when  we  find  that,  in  the  fifty 
years  of  its  existence,  the  province  of  Missouri  has  grown 
from  the  eight  or  nine,  who  made  up  the  first  colony,  to 
the  number  of  334,  having  charge  of  five  colleges,  one  novi- 
tiate, and  six  large  parochial  residences. 

Besides  these  two  American  provinces,  there  are  in  the 
United  States  several  colonies  of  Fathers  from  the  provinces 
of  Europe.  The  mission  of  New  York  and  Canada  is  the 
most  important  of  these  both  in  membership  and  in  the 
success  of  its  labors.  This  was  originally  a  colony  sent 
from  France,  in  1830,  at  the  invitation  of  Bishop  Flaget, 
of  Kentucky ;  but  it  was  detained  for  some  time  in  the 
South,  whence  it  migrated,  in  1832,  to  St.  Mary's  College, 
near  Lebanon,  Kentucky.  Various  causes  combined  to  render 
that  situation  untenable,  so  that  in  1846  the  Fathers  of  that 
college  accepted  the  invitation  of  Bishop  Hughes  to  take 
charge  of  his  college  at  Fordham,  New  York,  and  of  the 
ecclesiastical  seminary  connected  with  it.  Little  by  little 
the  colony  throve  and  extended  its  field  of  labor  to  the  city 
of  New  York,  to  Troy,  Jersey  City,  Buffalo,  Montreal,  and 
other  places  in  Canada;  so  that  it  has  at  present  two  novi- 
tiates, three  large  colleges,  and  a  number  of  residences,  be- 
sides its  Indian  missions  in  Canada,  with  330  members  on 
its  roll.  Several  of  the  Fathers  have  spiritual  charge  of  the 
poor,  the  prisoners,  the  sick,  the  emigrants  on  the  islands 
in  the  harbor  of  New  York,  and  though  many  have  been 
70 


390  HISTOBY  OF  THE  SOCIETY   OF  JESUS. 

carried  off  by  disease  contracted  in  this  arduous  service,  others 
are  always  eager  to  expose  themselves  to  the  same  danger. 

The  province  of  Lyons  has  sent  a  colony  to  New  Orleans 
and  other  Southern  towns,  and  their  three  colleges  are  pro- 
ductive of  great  good  for  the  Christian  education  of  youth, 
while  their  churches  are  centres  of  Christian  life  and  action 
for  all  classes. 

The  German  province  has  a  numerous  mission  in  the 
United  States,  the  Fathers  of  which  labor  with  great  zeal, 
and  corresponding  fruit,  for  the  preservation  of  the  faith 
in  the  German  emigrants.  Their  efforts  are  directed  to  this 
end,  and  the  means  they  employ  are  the  same  that  the  so- 
ciety has  always  used  —  colleges  for  youth,  churches  for  preadi- 
ing  and  administering  the  sacraments,  missions  in  other  par- 
ishes, etc. 

Naples  has  taken  charge  of  several  parishes  in  New  Mexico 
and  Colorado,  and  the  Fathers  in  these  new  countries  promise 
themselves  a  great  harvest  in  the  future;  meanwhile  they  are 
sowing  the  seed  in  patience  and  in  tears.  A  college  has  been 
opened,  and  a  beginning  has  been  made  of  a  novitiate,  which 
will  gradually  produce  a  succession  of  laborers  for  the  coming 
time. 

California  is  cultivated  by  Fathers  from  the  province  of 
Turin,  who  have  the  flourishing  colleges  of  Santa  Clara  and 
San  Francisco,  besides  the  residence  of  San  Jose.  To  this 
mission  belong  the  Indian  stations  in  Oregon,  Montana,  etc., 
■which  are  still  maintained,  though  meeting  with  no  sympathy 
and  much  opposition  from  those  who,  for  the  sake  of  peace, 
should  be  the  most  zealous  cooperators  with  the  missionaries 
for  the  civilization  of  the  savage  tribes.  As  it  is,  the  Fathers 
labor  on  with  patient  and  sorrowful  perseverance.  They  feel 
that  there  is  no  future  for  their  neophytes,  who  are  doomed  to 
perish,  though  they  might  be  trained  into  useful  and  prosper- 
ous members  of  society.  But  against  hope  they  still  labor 
to  save  as  many  as  possible  for  heaven,  and  look  to  God  alone 


APPENDIX.  391 

both  for  comfort  in  their  almost  thankless  task  and  for  its  full 
reward  hereafter. 

The  spiritual  condition  of  the  colored  race  in  the  United 
States  had  long  been  a  subject  of  painful  solicitude  to  the 
bishops  of  the  Church,  who  felt  the  responsibility  resting 
upon  them,  but  found  themselves  almost  entirely  unable  to 
meet  its  demands.  The  Fathers  of  the  second  Plenary  Council 
of  Baltimore  made  this  matter  a  subject  of  the  most  diligent 
inquiry  and  most  serious  deliberation,  until  they  at  last  de- 
cided to  recommend  the  colored  race  especially  to  the  Su- 
periors of  the  Religious  Orders.  The  General  of  the  society 
eagerly  entered  into  the  work,  and  urged  the  provincials  in 
the  United  States  to  take  it  in  hand.  But  even  before  the 
Plenary  Council  had  spoken,  Baltimore,  St.  Louis,  and  Cin- 
cinnati had  taken  steps  to  provide  for  the  spiritual  wants  of 
the  colored  race.  In  Baltimore,  there  had  existed  for  many 
years,  a  noble  institution,  founded  by  the  saintly  Father 
Joubert,  for  the  education  of  colored  girls  and  the  care  of 
female  colored  orphans.  It  was  the  Sisterhood  of  Providence, 
consisting  of  colored  women  who  devoted  themselves,  under 
the  usual  religious  vows,  to  this  eminently  meritorious  work, 
and  who  continue  it  successfully  to  this  day.  Father  Joubert 
directed  and  governed  the  community  during  his  lifetime,  and 
when  he  had  gone  to  his  reward,  the  Redemptorists  of  Balti- 
more took  charge  of  it,  until  it  was  given  over  to  Father  Peter 
L.  Miller,  a  Belgian  Jesuit,  who  devoted  all  his  time  and 
energy  to  its  development  until  his  death,  on  the  26th  of 
September,  1877.  Father  Michael  O'Connor,  the  former 
Bishop  of  Pittsburg,  labored  long  and  arduously  for  the 
establishment  of  a  church  in  Baltimore  for  the  exclusive 
use  of  the  colored  people.  He  preached  and  lectured  and 
made  collections  in  many  cities  to  raise  funds  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  finally  succeeded  in  purchasing  a  Protestant  meet- 
ing-house, which  was  solemnly  blessed  and  converted  into 
a  Catholic  Church,  in  which  the  colored  people  might  as- 
semble for  divine  service.     Father  Miller  became  pastor  of 


392  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

this  cburcli,  also ;  and,  witli  the  frequent  assistance  of  Father 
O'Connor  and  other  Fathers,  the  congregation  was  formed 
and  trained  to  the  great  benefit  of  religion.  The  same  good 
was  effected,  in  the  same  manner,  by  the  Fathers  of  the  Mis- 
souri province  at  St.  Louis  and  Cincinnati,  where  churches 
and  schools  for  colored  people  are  still  flourishing  under 
their  care.  Father  Weninger  has  made  this  work  one  of  the 
numerous  objects  of  his  insatiable  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God. 
Through  his  exertions  an  association  has  been  formed,  under 
the  patronage  of  the  Blessed  Peter  Claver,  the  object  of  which 
is  to  contribute  toward  the  maintenance  and  the  propagation 
of  the  true  faith  among  these  people  by  the  erection  of 
churches  and  schools.  ^ 

Thus  we  see  that  no  class  or  race  of  people  has  been  left 
uncared  for  by  the  Fathers  of  the  society  in  America.  They 
have  always  been  too  few  for  the  tasks  imposed  on  them,  and 
their  means  have  always  been  too  limited.  But  they  have 
not-  spared  themselves,  and  the  result  of  their  labors  proves 
once  more  that  zeal  and  charity,  with  confidence  in  God,  ac- 
complish great  things  against  all  opposition. 

Before  closing  this  brief  sketch  of  the  present  condition  of 
the  society,  we  deem  it  necessary  to  glance  at  its  literary  pro- 
ductions in  our  times.  It  is  well  known  and  generally  ac- 
knowledged that  the  old  society  stood  in  the  front  rank  of 
Catholic  literature  and  science  in  almost  every  branch.  The 
works  of  the  Jesuit  theologians,  moralists,  philosophers, 
asceticists,  hagiologists,  historians,  and  writers  of  text-books 
for  colleges,  in  every  branch  of  liberal  education,  have  been 
the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  are  still  the  leading  au- 
thorities on  the  subjects  they  treat.  But  it  has  been  said 
that  the  modern  society  has  failed  to  support  the  reputation 
bequeathed  to  it.  We  might  answer  to  this,  as  has  been  an- 
swered before,  that  the  resuscitated  societv  never  had  either 
the  number  of  members  or  the  material  facilities  which  it  had 
before  the  suppression,  though  it  was  expected  to  resume  all 
the  works  destroyed  or  interrupted  by  that  event.     Learned 


APPENDIX.  393 

leisure  was  necessarily  excluded  by  the  press  of  labor,  and  we 
should  have  no  reason  to  complain  even  though  very  little  iiad 
been  done  of  writing  or  publishing  books.  But  when  we  be- 
hold the  vast  number  of  volumes  ])ublished  by  the  modern 
society,  notwithstanding  all  the  dithculties  to  be  encountered^ 
we  have  reason  to  be  astonished  at  the  result,  and  we  are 
forced  to  admit  that  the  society  has  fully  sustained  its  reputa- 
tion. 

In  one  special  branch  of  literature,  the  Periodical,  of  which 
we  find  but  little  in  the  old  society,  its  present  activity  and 
excellence  are  beyond  praise.  The  periodical  press  has,  in 
in  modern  times,  become  the  ruler  of  the  world;  and  the 
enemies  of  the  Church  have  seized  upon  it  as  the  chief, 
almost  the  sole,  instrument  for  the  success  of  their  cause. 
It  was  necessary  to  meet  the  world  on  this  field,  to  wield 
this  weapon  in  defence  of  the  truth.  Pius  IX  saw  this,  and 
pointed  it  out  to  the  champions  of  the  Church,  and  at  his 
bidding  the  Jesuits  came  forward  as  writers  for  the  peri- 
odical press.  Pius  IX  is  the  father  of  the  "  Civil ta  Cattolica," 
which  was  begun  at  Naples,  in  1851,  by  the  advice  and  with 
the  blessing  of  the  then  exiled  Pontift^  For  magnificence 
of  style,  strength  of  argument,  depth  of  thought,  variety 
of  matter,  soundness  and  breadth  of  view,  the  Civilta  ranks 
first  among  Catholic  periodicals.  And  now  in  its  thirtieth 
year,  though  hampered  by  an  illiberal  and  oppressive  gov- 
ernment, it  still  maintains  the  fight  with  unabated  vigor 
and  undiminished  ability.  Following  the  example  of  their 
brethren  in  Italy,  the  French  Fathers  issued  their  periodical, 
"  Les  Etudes,"  which  at  once  took  a  high  rank  among  the 
magazines  of  its  country,  and  still  continues  with  increasing 
energy  and  talent  to  delight  and  instruct  its  readers.  The 
"Stimmen  aus  Laach "  is  the  medium  through  which  the 
German  Fathers  act  monthly  on  the  public  mind.  "The 
Month"  is  edited  by  a  staff  of  writers  furnished  by  the 
Province  of  England,  and  their  merit  is  rapidly  gaining 
for  the  periodical  a  prominent  place  in  public  favor.  "  The 
70* 


394  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS. 

Irish  Monthly"  comes  from  the  province  of  Ireland,  and, 
though  young  in  years,  does  good  service.  A  very  learned 
theological  and  philosophical  Quarterly  is  published  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  University  of  Innspruck,  in.  Austrian  Tyrol, 
and  the  Belgian  Fathers,  besides  conducting  the  "  Pre'cis 
Historiques,"  contribute  largely  to  the  "  Revue  Scientifique 
de  Bruxelles."  Besides  all  these,  we  have  the  more  ascetical 
"Messenger  of  the  Sacred  Heart,"  a  monthly  bulletin  of  the 
Apostleship  of  Prayer,  published  in  several  European  lan- 
guages by  the  Fathers  of  the  society.  Surely,  this  might 
seem  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  society  has  not  degenerated 
from  the  glory  of  its  ancient  days.  Yet  this  is  but  a  small 
part  of  what  it  has  accomplished  in  our  times  in  the  field  of 
literature. 

The  magnificent  work  of  the  Bollandists  still  goes  on.  A 
noble  work  on  the  Councils  of  the  Church,  in  continuation  of 
Labbe,  is  coming  forth  from  the  hands  of  the  German  Fathers.- 
Christian  art  and  archaeology  are  represented  by  Father  Ga- 
rucci,  in  a  series  of  volumes  which  are  unsurpassed  for  elegance 
and  accuracy.  The  Spanish  Fathers  are  publishing  the  com- 
plete collection  of  the  letters  of  St.  Ignatius,  and  one  has  only 
to  look  at  the  beautiful  volumes  to  see  that  it  is  a  labor  of 
love,  on  which  neither  time,  nor  pains,  nor  expense  is  spared. 
Taparelli,  Liberatore,  Tongiorgi,  Perrone,  Gury,  Franzelin, 
Patrizi,  Boero,  Franco,  Bresciani,  De  Harbe,  Coleridge,  Har- 
per, Morris,  Weninger,  and  a  host  of  others  both  in  Europe 
and  in  America,  have  given  to  the  world  volumes  rich  in 
thought,  and  worthy  in  every  way  to  be  placed  at  the  side 
of  the  works  written  by  the  great  men  of  the  old  society. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  let  us  turn  to  what  is  dearest  and 
most  glorious  to  the  Society  of  Jesus  —  the  honor  of  beholding 
her  sons  placed  by  the  Church  on  her  altars,  given  to  the 
faithful  as  models,  and  as  heavenly  protectors.  In  1864, 
Peter  Canisius  was  beatified  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff'  Pius 
IX.  In  April,  1865,  the  same  honor  was  conferred  on  the 
Belgian    scholastic,    John   Berchmans.      In   1862,   the   three 


APPENDIX.  395 

Japanese  martyrs,  Paul,  John,  and  James,  were  solemnly  can- 
onized, and,  in  18G7,  the  blessed  Charles  Spinola,  together  with 
thirty-two  others  of  the  society,  and  twenty-two  more,  either 
catechists  or  entertainers  of  the  Fathers  during  the  ])ersecution 
in  Japan,  were  placed  on  the  altars.  On  September  5th,  1875, 
the  gentle  Peter  Favre,  the  eldest  son  of  St.  Ignatius,  was  beati- 
fied, or  rather  his  veneration  as  a  saint,  which  had  been  con- 
tinued in  his  native  Savoy  ever  since  his  death,  was  ratified 
and  approved.  When  we  add  these  to  the  Fathers  and  brothers 
canonized  or  beatified  before  the  suppression,  we  find  that  the 
society  now  counts  ninety-eight  of  its  sons  among  the  saints  of 
the  Church.  Forty-seven  others  are  on  the  way  to  receive  the 
same  distinction,  without  counting  the  Jesuit  martyrs  of  Eng- 
land, the  five  victims  of  the  Parisian  Commune,  or  the  many 
other  martyrs  of  faith  or  of  charity  whose  virtues  and  great 
deeds  are  recorded  in  the  domestic  annals  of  the  society. 
With  such,  and  so  many  patrons  in  heaven,  the  Society  of 
Jesus  cannot  fail  to  be  blessed  in  its  undertakings  for  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  service  of  His  Church. 


896  HISTORY    OF    THE    SOCIETY    OF    JESUS. 


SI]e  (gjeisting  glissions  of  tl]e  Sacictg  of  Icstts."^ 

The  work  of  foreign  missions,  in  which  the  Gospel  was 
propagated,  and  new  Christianities  founded  in  Infidel  coun- 
tries, is  one  of  the  most  striking  triumphs  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  To  this  object  it  had  consecrated  its  members 
by  a  special  vow  ;  it  had  devoted  to  it  a  zeal  and  a  courage 
which  outstripped  encomiums;  the  whole  world  had  become 
its  field  of  labor  ;  eight  hundred  missionaries  had  fertilized 
that  field  with  their  blood  ;  more  than  three  thousand  toiled 
therein,  and  every-where  the  success  was  marvellous,  the 
recompense  worthy  of  their  sacrifice  and  devotion. 

But  the  limits  of  this  little  work  forbid  us  to  expose,  in 
all  its  vastness,  the  plan  on  which  those  missions  were  car- 
ried on.  We  wish  here  to  satisfy  those  who  may  ask  what 
the  society  may  have  retained  of  all  that  which  their  for- 
mer fathers  held.  More  than  one  cause  occurs  to  make 
that  succession  limited  and  humble. 

The  ancient  missionaries  had  the  advantage  of  an  open 
field,  fresh  and  unlimited.  They  worked  freely  and  with- 
out restraint;  their  zeal  could  satisfy  itself;  their  genius 
could  devise  the  most  stupendous  plans,  found  states,  or- 
ganize, and  create  almost  at  will.  The  case  is  vastly  dif- 
ferent in  the  present  time,  but  the  principle  of  action  is 
the  same. 

The  translator  had  made  some  change  in  the  author's  statement 
regarding  the  present  Missions  of  the  Society,  in  accordance  with 
more  recent  data.  In  this  second  edition  we  have  taken  the  same 
liberty,  so  as  to  give  the  latest  information  on  the  subject. 


EXISTING   MISSIONS  OF  TOE  SOCIETY.  307 

In  Europe  the  society  is  divided  Into  provinces ;  that  is, 
into  local  circumscriptions,  like  the  dioceses  of  the  Church. 
Each  province  comprises  a  number  of  houses  or  residences, 
governed  by  local  superiors,  subordinate  to  the  provin- 
cials, who  are  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  Fa- 
ther General  at  Rome. 

The  different  missions  with  which  the  society  is  charged 
in  America,  Asia,  and  Africa  are  too  widely  separated,  the 
one  from  the  other,  to  be  easily  grouped  around  a  common 
centre,  so  as  to  form  provinces,  as  in  Europe.  Such  coun- 
tries, moreover,  generally  contribute  but  little  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  missionaries,  and  furnish  but  few  subjects  for 
the  priesthood  ;  hence  they  are  generally  attached  to  some 
province  in  Europe  for  what  concerns  their  government, 
and  the  ordinary  assistance  of  which  they  stand  in  need. 
In  America,  however,  two  provinces  have  been  formed  out 
of  what  were  formerly  only  missions — Maryland  and  Mis- 
souri, and  the  mission  of  New  York  and  Canada  has  been 
separated  from  the  province  of  Champagne  and  made  a  quasi- 
province.  In  Europe,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  some 
countries  where  schism,  heresy,  or  Islamism  have  prevented 
the  establishment  of  anything  but  missions ;  and  many  of 
the  provinces,  which  formerly  flourished  in  Europe,  have  of 
late  years  been  dispersed,  and  their  members  are  scattered 
over  the  world,  wherever  they  could  find  a  refuge  and  a  rest- 
ing-place to  continue  the  labors  of  their  vocation. 

The  old  society  sometimes  accepted  the  episcopacy  in  those 
missions  where  the  honor  and  dignity  were  little  and  the 
labor  great.  The  present  society,  following  its  example,  has 
done  the  same;  and  hence  it  numbers  among  its  members 
Archbishops  or  Bishops,  Steins  of  Calcutta,  Canoz  of  Ma- 
dura, Languillat  of  Nankin,  Dubar  of  Eastern  Tcheli,  Ether- 
idge  of  British  Guiana,  Meurin  of  Bombay,  Lizarzaburu  of 
Guayaquil,  Paul  of  Central  America.  It  had  also  Bishop 
Miege  of  Kansas,  but  he  has  lately  obtained  the  privih  ge  of 
resigning  his  dignity  to  return  to  the  humble  life  of  obedi- 


898  HISTORY  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

ence.  There  are,  besides,  several  Prefects  Apostolic,  as 
Fathers  Cazet  and  Lacomme,  who  govern  their  missions  with 
the  powers  of  bishops,  but  without  the  episcopal  consecration. 

The  foreign  missions  of  the  society  have  developed  and  in- 
creased, owing  partly  to  disturbances  in  Europe,  partly  to 
increased  demands  for  laborers. 

The  Province  of  Champagne  has  charge  of  the  missions  in 
the  district  of  Eastern  Tcheli,  in  China.  There  are  39  mis- 
sionaries in  that  field. 

The  Province  of  France  (Paris)  has  99  missionaries  in  the 
Chinese  district  of  Nankin. 

The  Province  of  Lyons  employs  264  in  the  various  mis- 
sions which  it  has  in  Africa,  Syria,  and  North  America. 

Toulouse  has  taken  charge  of  Madura  and  the  Islands  of 
Madagascar,  Bourbon,  etc.,  to  which  it  has  sent  159  mission- 
aries. 

The  Spanish  Province  of  Aragon  has  233  in  the  Philippine 
Islands,  in  Chili  and  Paraguay. 

Castile  sends  to  the  Antilles,  Ecuador,  Maragnon,  Nicara- 
gua, and  Peru,  besides  having  care  of  Portugal.  378  of  its 
members  are  thus  employed. 

The  Province  of  Austria  attends  to  the  German  missions  of 
Australia,  with  42  missionaries. 

Belgium  is  charged  with  Calcutta,  and  has  74  of  its  members 
in  that  laborious  and  unhealthy  occupation. 

The  German  Province  has  missions  in  the  United  States, 
in  Bombay,  Chili  and  Brazil;  and  to  these  it  has  sent  231 
laborers. 

Holland  has  29  in  Java. 

From  England,  59  have  been  detailed  to  serve  in  Scotland, 
British  Guiana,  British  Honduras,  Jamaica,  and  South  Africa. 

Ireland  sends  16  to  Australia. 

Rome  has  missions  in  Brazil,  etc.,  to  which  75  members  have 
been  sent. 

Naples  has  opened  several  houses  in  New  Mexico,  with  41 
missionaries  employed. 


EXISTING  MISSIONS  OF  THE  SOCIETY.  399 

Sicily  has  52  of  its  members  in  the  College  of  Constantinople 
or  in  various  Islands  of  the  Greek  Archipelago. 

Turin  has  colleges  and  residences  in  California,  and  several 
Indian  JMissions  in  Oregon  and  other  Territories,  with  141  of 
its  members  thus  engaged. 

Venice  employs  40  in  the  missions  of  Dalmatia,  Illyria,  and 
Albania. 

The  mission  of  New  York  and  Canada  contains  several 
Indian  missions,  to  which  24  laborers  are  detailed. 

The  American  Province  of  Maryland  numbers  293  mem- 
bers; Missouri,  334;  New  York,  308. 

According  to  the  latest  statistics,  the  society  has  over  2000 
of  its  members  devoted  to  missionary  labor. 


THE  END. 


April,  187«. 


KxtahUshci-     JS37. 

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per  100,  $G.50.  Flexible  cloth,  per  doz., 
$1.50;  per  100,  $10. 


The  Providential  Mission  of  Pins  IX. 

By  Rev.  John  .1.  Keane.    8o.  paper,  £5 

Kleiner  Katecliismus,  3cts.;  per  100,52 
Devotion  to  the  Pope.    By  Farer. 

rtexible  cloth,  25 

Popular  SUBSCRIPTION  BOOKS.  &c.,  Published  by  Murphy  k  Co, 


First  Communion  and  Confirmation  Cer- 

titieates.  Renewul  of  the  Baptismal 
Promises  on  the  occasion  of  First  Com- 
munion and  Contirmatioc,  illustrated 
with  neat  and  appropriate  engravings, 
printed  on  extra  Fuper-tinted  paper, 
suitable  for  framing,  9  x  1'2. 
First  Communion  Certificates. 
Per  dozen,  50  ets  ;  per  100,  S3  50 

First  Communion  and  Confirmation 
Certificate^,  pe/  doz.  50  ets;  per  100,  $;i  50 

The  same,  with  ornamental  border,  in 

3  colors,  $5.00  per  100. 

Circles  of  the  living  Kosary(ilUistrated.) 
An  entirely  new  translation;  the  only 
correct  and  autlioiized  edition. 
Per  doz.  sheets,  50  ets ;  per  100,  $3 

A  Novena  In  Honor  of  St.  Joseph,  from 

the  Italian  of  Father  Fatrigna)ii,  S.  J.;  to 
which  are  added  the  Litany  of  Saint 
Joseph  and  other  Prayers.  Jui>t  Published 
32mo.  paper,  20  ets  ;       flexible  cloth,  25 

Novena  and  Prayers  to  our  lady  of 
Lourdes.     For  the, ,'  ick  andAtflicttd. 

Paper,  25  eth.;  flexible  cb.th,  40 

Photographs  of  His  Holiness,  Pope 

X^eo  -X.  4  IJ.  Card,  per  diz.  $1  ;  per  lOD, 
$750.  Cabiiet,  per  Uo2i.,$2;  per  100,  S15  lin- 
perial— 11  x  14  -  per  doz.  $4.20.  Pronounced  aa 
excellent  likeuess,  by  Most  Kcv.  Abp.  Gibbons. 
Office  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary, 
iu  English,  paper,  5  ets.;  per  doz.,  50  ets. 


Tyler's  life  of  Chief  Justice  Taney 

8vo.  c].$5;  Lib.  style,  $i;;  lialf  turkey,  $7 

Mason's  Popular  life  of  Gen.  R.  K.  lee. 

demi,  Svo.  cloth,  :i;2  .50  lib'y  style,  $3 
half  morocco $3  50 

Mason's  ^^outhern   Poems  of  the  War. 

r2mo.  cloth,  $2;        cloth,  gilt  edges,  $3 

Jfoethen's  History  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

i\>w  Revised  and  Enlarged  Edition,  demi. 

8o.  cl.  various  bindings,  from  $2  to  :J3  5i)> 
Spalding's  History  of  the  Reformation. 
Revised  and  enlarged  edition,  with  Por- 
trait of  the  Author.  So.  cl.  bev.  Back 
and  Gold,  §4;  gilt  edges $4  60 


Journal  of  a  Youn^r  lady  of  Virginia^ 
1782.     Edited  by  E.  V.  Mason. 
Small  4to.  old  style,  cloth $1  00 

Ward's  Tree  of  life,  or.  The  Church  of 
Christ    Illustrated. 

This  Ecclesiastical  and  Historical  Chart  pre- 
sents at  a  glance  a  complete  History  of  tlie 
Church,  from  its  first  establishment  to  thi  pres- 
ent period,  rendering  it  valuable  for  reference, 
and  an  appropriate  ornament  to  the  church,  par- 
lor or  library.  It  is  printed  from  a  fine  Line 
Engraving,  on  a  sheet  25  x  40  inches,  hand- 
somely colored,  varnished  and  mountca  on  rol- 
ler?, and  sold  at  the  low  price  of  $4  00.  A3~It 
should  have  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  house  o€ 
every  Catholic. 


.fe-BooK  Agents  and  Caxvasseps  wanted  in  all  parts  of  the  U.  S.  to  sell  the  above  and 
other  Popuhu- Books.      Address      MURPHY  &  CO.,  Publishers,  Baltimcro. 

^7 


POPULAR   STANDARD  PRAYER   BOOKS, 

Published  by  MURPHY  &  CO.  Baltimoro. 

Printers  to  the  Pope  and  to  the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 

Attention  is  respectfully  invited  to  the  following  List  of  STANDARD  PRAYER  BOOKS, 
Published  with  the  Approbation  of  the  Most  Rev.  The  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 

With  the  vieiv  of  meeting  the  spirit  of  the  times,  the  prices  of  most  of  the  following  Prayer  Buuki 
have  been  reduced  from  10  to  20  per  cent,  and  several  New,  Ciikap  and  Attrac- 
tive Stvxes  have  been  added. 
;e^ These  Books  are  issned  in  a  degree  of  unsurpassed  Elegance,  Accuracy  and  Cheaiuiess, 

botli  as  ie!,'iuds  Printing,  Illustrai.ions,  Biudings.  &c. 
4®-From  tha  Prices  affixed,  the  usual  disoouut  will  ba  made  to  the  Trade  and  othsrs,  ordering  in  quanliliBS. 
Tn  ordering  Prayer  Books,  the  Number  will  be  sufficient  to  indicate  the  style  of  Binding  X-  Price. 


StunrtrtiMl  Catholic  Prayer  Book. 


A  New,  Enlarged  and  Improved  Edition  of 


Recdinmended  for  general  use  as  being  the  ^   Standard    Popnlur   Pratjer  BonJt. 


most  comprehensive,  complete  and  accurate^ 
t'alliolic  Prayer  Book,  published  in  the  U.  S. 


THE  VISITATION   MANUAL. 

/"SO  par/e.r,  31^0. 


ontnining  o«/y  such  Prayers  ^(^  Devotions  ^  ^^,j^^^i^„  ^^  Prayersand  Instructions,  com- 
^■M-^approvedrKU.\.mnclwnedhy!heaiurch.,     ^.,^^  recording  to  the  Spiritual  Dirrclory 


and  Spirit  oi  Saint  1'hancis  dm  Saijcs, 
Founder  of  the  llcligioiis  Order  of  liie 
Visitation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary. 
Alt  the  principal  Devotions  in  large  type. 


a-5  are  approved  nu^l  .sanctioned  by 

JB^^I'  is  especially recommendedby  the  Right 

Uev.  Bishops  of  Montreal  and  Toronto, 

St.  Vincent's  Manual  — 966  pages,  24o. 

^^AlHhe principal  Devotions  in  large  type. 

1 eiiglish  cloth  beveled,  li^l  00    j  ;   ___" english  cloth,  beveled,  $;i  00 

■  ■  '  '  '     1  25 

1  no 

1  75 

1  50 

2  00 

2  25 

3  5(1 
-I  UO 

4  00 

5  uO 
10  UO 


2 anibesqu(i.  sprinkled  edges, 

3 TloLh  bev.,  grif  centre  and  edges, 

4 aini).,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

43^ iiiiitution  morocco,  red  lodges, 

5 aniericaii  morocco,  full  gilt, 

6 american  mor.,  gilt  and  clasp, 

ay^ levant  mor.,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

7 turkey  super  extra, 

8 turkey,  super  extra  and  clasp, 

9 turkey, .Ilex.,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

10 turkey,  londuii  anticiue, 

11 sunk  panel' medallion  centre, 

12  ....calf  ex.  or  Ilex.,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

13 turkey  extra,  oct.  )  ims  and  clasp, 

14 calf  extra,  oct.  rims  and  clasp, 

\\% velvet,  rim  and  clasp, 

15 silk  velvet,  embossed  and  clasp, 

IC) silk  velvet  extra,  full  ornaments,  10  00 

17 silk  velvet,  oct.  rims  and  ovals,  12  00 


t'lillrt's  rrajer  &  Ilj inn  HooU-384  pp.  32o. 


1  -5    2 ai'abesipie,  sprinkled  edges 

1  ^0    3 cloth  bev.,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

1  "'^    4 arabesque,  gilt  cent.e  and  edges, 

1  50    ^1^ imitation  morocco,  red  edges, 

2  00    5 american  nu>rocco,  full  gilt, 

2  '^5    g american  morocco,  gilt  and  clasp, 

f  ^'^    7 turkey,  super  exi  ru, 

^  ^    8 turkey,  super  extra  and'clasit, 

7Y      9 ."turk(!y,  huidon  anli<iue, 

'I  j'*!'  10. ..calf  extra  or  Ilex,  red  or  gilt  edges, 
'*  "^  11 silk  velvetextra,  full  ornauKMits, 

4  *"J  12 silk  velvet,  oct.  rims  and  ovals,  12  00 

5  00^ 

6  00  A  New,  Large  Type  Prayer  Book. 
^  9"  ManualotSisteisofCliarity— (i40pp24o. 

A  collection  of  Prayers  compiled  froui  Ap- 
provexP Sources,  for  the  use  of  the  Si.slers  of 
Charity,  in  the  Diocese  of  Louisville,  Ky. 
Adapted  to  General  Use 


G  00, 


1 english  cloth  beveled,  $1  00 


For  thi>  I'se.  of  Catholic  Schools.    To  which  are  2 arabesque,  sprinkled  edges, 

add<'dtlie'res7>er.?.  Benediction oiiha  Blessed\  3 cloth  bev..  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

Sacnnnent,  the  .Responses  before  and  during  4 arab.?gilt  centre  and  edges. 

High  Mass,  set  to  Music.  i]4 imitation  morocco,  red  edges, 


1 flexible  cloth,  8    30 

2 fine  cloth,        40 

3 cloth  bev.,  gilt  centre  and  edges,        60 

4 imitation  morocco,  red  edges,        75 

5 american  morocco,  full  gilt,    1  00 

It  is  the  Cheapest  and  best  Book  published  for 
the  use  of  children,  whicli  is  fully  attested  by  the 
Bale  of  Hp wards  of  150,000  Copies. 

8tudenrs  Alanual  of  Catholic  DeTOtlons, 

3.70  jiftjes,  32o. 

Containing  all  the  Devotions  usual  in  Colleges, 
-Academies,  etc.    2d  enlarged  edition. 

1 32o.  fine  cloth,    40 

2 cloth  bev.,  gilt  centre  and  edges,    60 


1  25 
1  50 
1  75 

1  50 

2  00 

2  25 

3  50 

4  00 

4  00 

5  00 
10  00 
12  00 


5 american  morocco,  full  gilt, 

6 american  morocco,  gilt  and  clasp, 

7 turkey,  super  extra, 

8 turkey,  super  extra  and  clasp, 

9 turkey,  london  antique, 

10 calf  ex.  or  flexl,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

11 silk  velvet  extra,  full  ornaments, 

12 silk  velvet,  oct.  rims  and  ovals, 

J3  American  morocco,  marbled  edges, 
for  the  use  of  Religious,  $1  50  net. 
This  new  and  beautiful  Book,  just  Piihliihed,  is 
printed  from  Large  Clear  Type,  on  fine  paper, 
contains  in  addition  to  the  usual  Devotions,  a 
great  variety  of  Littiniei,  Nootnas,  Prayers  for 
Various  Occasions,  kc,  suited  to  the  difT-.-rent  fes- 
tivals of  the  year,  and  to  the  varied  wants  or  the 
special  devotion  of  each  person. 


s 


Standard  Catholic  Books, 


45 
75 
50 
75 
75 
00 
1  00 
1  25 
00 


1 


2  50 
4  00 

6  00 

7  50 


30 
50 
45 
60 
50 


75 


75 


The  Key  of  Heaven   480  pages,  32o. 
By  the  Rip;lit  Ilcv  Bishop  MiLNiiR.    A  New 
Revised  aiul  Eularged  Edition. 

J^^All  the  principal  Devotions  in  large  tyve. 

1 y tine  cloth,  % 

2 doth  bev.,  gilt  centre  and  edgea, 

3 arabes(jue,  sprinkled  edges, 

4 arabesque,  gilt  centre  and  edgea, 

4V2 injilatioii  morocco,  red  edges, 

6 aiueriran  morocco,  full  g>lt, 

fi^^ american  morocco,  flexible, 

6 american  morocco,  gilt  and  clasp, 

6^2 levant,  mor.,  red  or  gilt  edgea, 

7. ...turkey,  flexible,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

8 '. turkey,  super  extra, 

9 turkey,  super  extra  and  clasp, 

10 turkey,  londou  auticjue, 

103-2 morocco  tuck, 

U sunk  panel,  medallion  centre, 

IJ...calf  extra  or  flex.,  red  or  gilt  edgea, 

12J^ velvet  rim  and  clasp, 

13 silk  velvet,  embossed  and  clasp, 

14. ...silk  velvet,  cxtni^  lull  ornameuta, 
15 silk  velvet,  ocU  rims  aud  ovals, 

Gems  of  Devotion— 384  pages  48o. 
A  selection  of  Prayers  for  Catholics. 

1 fine  cloth,  8 

2 cloth,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

8 arabesque,  sprinkled  edges, 

4 arabesque,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

43^ imiialiion  morocco,  red  edges, 

5' american  morocco,  full  gilt, 

6J^ american  morocco,  flexil3le, 

6 american  mor.,  gilt  aud  clasp,     i 

Q]/^ levant  mor.,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

7 american  morocco  tuck, 

8.  ...turkey,  flexible,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

9 turkey,  super  extra:, 

10 turkey,  super  extra  and  c^asp, 

1 sunk  panel,  medallion  centre, 

2 calf  ex.  or  flex.,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

2)4 velvet,  rim  and  cla.sp, 

3 silk  velvet,  emboss.cd  and  clasp, 

4. ...silk  velvet,  extra,  lii?l  ornaments, 

Tlie  Cliapei  toiupaniou  — 256  pp.  32o, 

Containing  Pious  Derolious  at  Mass,  Morning 
and  Evening  Prayers,  the  Litanies,  Vespers 
tor  Sundays,  etc.,  to  which  are  added  the 
Vesj)ers,  Benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment, Responses  before  and  during  High 
Mass,  set  to  Music. 

1 fine  cloth,  $ 

2 arabesque,  sprinkled  edges, 

3 cloth  bev.,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

4 arabesque,  gilt  centre  a.'id  edges, 

i]/2 imitation  morocco,  red  edges, 

5 american  morocco,  full  gilt, 

6 -turkey  morocco,  case,    : 

The  Catholic  Cliild's  Prayer  Book. 

288  pages,  48o. 
Embellisned  witli  3o  Fine  Engravings,  illns- 
traling  the  IJoly  Sacrijiceoi  the  Afass,  etc. 

1 fine  cloth,    25 

2 cloth  gilt,    40 

3 fine  cloth  bev.  gilt  edges  aud  sides,    75 

Tlie  Catholic  Child's  Prayer  Book  has  been  com- 
piled with  tlie  view  of  placing  witliia  the  reach  of 
Catiiolic  Children,  a  complete  Prayer  Kook,  for 
Daily  Uie.  in  the  mo8t  compact,  aiiractivc,  and 
cheapest  form. 


Christian's  Guide  to  Heaven— 384pp.  32o. 

.4  Manual  of  Spiritual  Exercises  for  the  Use  oj 
Catholics. 

S    45 

75 

50 

75 

75 

1  00 

1  25 

1  00 

1  75 

2  00 
2  00 
2  50 


1 fine  cloth, 

2 cloth  bev.,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

3 arabesque,  sprinkled  edges, 

4 arabesque,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

43^ imitation  morocco,  red  edges, 

5 american  morocco,  full  gilt, 

6 american  morocco,  gilt  and  clasp, 

6^2 levant  mor.,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

7 turkey  morocco,  case, 

8. ...turkey,  flexible,  red  or  gilt  edges, 

00'  9 turkey  super  extra, 

00  Ifi turkey,  super  extra  and  clasp, 

50|11 turkey,  londou  antique, 

25JJ2 sunk  panel,  medallion  centre, 

50^123^ velvet,  rim  and  clasp, 

2  50  13 silk  velvet,  embossed  and  clasp, 

2  50jl4....silk  velvet,  extra,  full  ornaments, 
15 -MJiilk  velvet,  oct.  vims  aud  ovals, 


2  25 
2  50 
2  60 
4  00 

6  00 

7  50 


Daily  Exercise— 192  pages,  48o. 
A  neat  Miniature  Prayer  Book,  consisting  of 
the  Hohj  3fass  and  Vespers,  Avilh  Blaming 
and  Evening  Prayers.  ToA\iiich  arc  added 
a  selection  of  Hymns,  Prayers  for  ConfeS' 
sion,  Communion,  etc. 

1 fine  cloth, 

2 cloth,  gilt  centre  and  edges, 

3 arabesque,  gilt  centre  aud  edges, 

4 american  morocco,  full  gilt. 


?|5 american  morocco  tuck, 


1 


25 
40 
40 

50 
75 
00 


„„;6 turkey,  super  extra, 

75JcathoIlo  Maniiat  for  ('lilldreii— 320  pp.  64o. 

I^j  With  upwards  of  40  Pine  Tlluslrations  of  the 
Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  etc. 

_  ^^  1 fine  cloth,  $  20 

2  ()oJ2 cloth,  gilt  centre  aud  edges,  40 

2  00 '2/^ imitation  morocco,  red  edges,  40 

2  ooi^ arabesque,  gilt  centre  and  edges,  50 

4  00  ' 

5  00 


1  50 

1  50 

00 


40 
50 
60 
75 
75 
80 
25 


4 turkey,  super  extra,    1  00 

Catholic's  Vade  Rlecnm  —  416  pages,  24o 

turkey  morocco,  red  or  gilt  edges,  S3  00 
calf  extra  or  flexible,  red  or  gilt  edges,    3  00 

The  Following  of  Chri.st— 552  pp.  48o' 

By  A^Kempis.     With  Practical  Re  flee/ ions, 

aud  a  Prayer  at  the  end  of  each  Chapter. 

1 fine  cloth,  $ 

2 arabesque,  sprinkled  edges, 

3 arabesque,  gilt  centre  aud  edges, 

4 imitation  morocco,  red  edges, 

5 turkey,  super  extra,    ' 

6 sunk  panel,  medallion  centre,    ; 

7. ..calf  extra  or  flex.,  red  or  gilt  edges,    : 


50 
GO 
90 
75 
00 
50 
50 


A  Cheap  and  Beautiful  FA  MILT 
BIBLE.  Illustrated  with  Fine  En- 
gravings, an  Emblematic  3Iarriage  Certifi- 
cate, Family  Records  and  Album,  with 
Spaces  for  lU  Family  Photographs. 

This  Quarto  Edition  of  the  Holy  Bible  is  bound 
in  morocco  panelled,  full  gilt,  with  two  clnsps, 
and  sold  at  the  very  low  price  of $15 

j^g" A  large  discount  to  Canvassers  who  will  find 
this  Bible  well  worthy  their  attention. 


9 


STANDARD  SCHOOL  BOOKS 
Published  by  MUEPHY  &  CO.,  Baltimore. 


Kemey's    First    Class-Book    of   History. 

Revised  and  enlarged  edition,  75;h  thousand,  CO 

Kerney's  Compendium  of  Ancient  anrt  .Mo- 
dern History.  4'ith  revised  and  enlarged 

edition,  continued  up  to  1867 1  25 

This  work  has  been  recently  introduced 
into  the  Public  Schools  of  Baltimore,  and 
is  extensively  used  in  Colleges  and  Schools 
throughout  the  United  States,  Canada, 
England,  Ireland,  and  the  East  Indies. 

Kerney's  Abridgment  Murray's  Grammar 

and  Exercises.     43d  edition 25 

Kerney's  Introduction  to  Columbian  Aritli- 

metic.     30th  edition 20 

Kerney's  Columbian  Arithmetic.  25th 
edition 50 

Kerney's  Key  to  do.  40 

Wilson's  Progressive  Speller,  containing 
upwards  of  12,000  words,  with  Reading 
and  Dictation  Exercises  annexed  to  each 
Lesson,  arranged  so  as  to  be  best  adapt- 
ed to  aid  the  memory,  and  obviate  the 
difficulties  in  this  branch  of  Elementary 
Education.    Compiled  byW.  J.  Wilson, 

of  North  Carolina 25 

This  book  has  been  recommended  by 
the  Board  of  Education  of  North  Carolina 
for  use  in  the  Public  Schools  of'the  State. 
It  has  already  been  adopted  by  many  of 
the  leading  institutions  in  the  Southern 
States  and  in  the  City  of  Baltimore. 

The  North  American  Spelling  Book,  de- 
signed for  Elementary  Instruction  in 
Schools.  An  improvement  upon  all 
others 20 

^P^  Conceded  to  be  the  Best  and  Cheap- 
est Spelling  Book  published. 

Fredet's  Ancient  History,  from  the  Flood 
to  the  Roman  Empire.    30th  ed...     i  50 

Fredet's  Modern  History.  32d  enlarged 
edition,  continued  to  1S67 i  50 

Lingard's  History  of  England.  Abridged 
by  Burke,  with  Notes,  etc i  50 

>Vettenliall's  Greek  Grammar.  Rudi- 
ments of  the  Greek  Language... .         75 


Historj-  of  the  Catholic  Church,  from  the 
Commencement  of  the  Christian  Era  to 
the  CEcumenical  Council  of  the  Vatican. 
Compiled  and  translated  from  the  best 
authors  by  Rev.  Theodore  Noethen, 
with  Questions  adapted  to  the  use  oi 
Schools.    (Second  Edition.) 1  25 

Onderdonk's  History  of  Maryland,  from  its 
Settlement  to  1867,  with  Illustrations. 
Second  revised  and  enlarged  edition,  to 
which  is  added  the  Constitution  of  the 
State 

This  Book  has  been  adopted  by  the 
State  and  City  Board,  to  be  used  in  all  the 
Schools  throughout  the  State  of  Maryland. 

Catechism  of  Scripture  History.     Revised 

by  M.  J.  Kerney.     30th  edition. . .         75 

Catechism  of  Ecclesiastical  History.     By 

a  Friend  of  Y  outh -o 

Murray's  EnglisJi  Grammar.  Complete,   40 

Murray's  English  Header.     iSmo...        35 

Sestini's  Elementary  Algebra 75 

Sestini's  Treatise  on  Algebra i  00 

Sestini's  Elements  of  Geometry  and  Tri- 
gonometry       2  00 

Sestini's  Manual  of  Geometrical  and  In- 
finitesimal Analysis.  (Recently  pub- 
lished.)      I  5c 

Ruddiman's  Latin  Grammar.  The  cheap- 
est and  best  published 75 

Ars  Rhetorica,  Auctore  R.  P.  Martino  du 
CA-gne,  Soc.  Jesu.  Editio  Secunda 
Americana  In  usum  Collegii  Georgeo- 
politana,  S.J 75 

Gillespie's  System  of  Progressiye  Pen- 
manship. In  Six  Numbers,  with  Steel 
Plate  Copies  at  the  head  of  each  page. 
$1  00  per  dozen. 

This  new  and  complete  system,  designed 
to  lead  the  pupils  from  the  first  principles 
of  Penmanship  to  a  free,  open,  and  prac- 
tical style  of  writing,  adapted  to  general 
business  purposes,  is  well  worthy  the  at> 
tention  of  teachers. 


A  New  and  Important  Work  on  Philososphy— Fourth  Edition. 

ETjBMENTS  of  rniLOSOrHTy  comprising  Logic  and  General  Prlncl 

plfs  of  Metaphysics.  By  Rev.  W.  H.  HILL,  S.J.,  Professor  of  Plitlosophy  ii  the  St. 
Louis  University,  Mo.  ^Fourth  Rev  ised  Edition.  Just  Published,  price  gl.50 
From  the  ruhhth'.rs'  Prf/are  to  the  S'f^rtd  Reinted  Edi'ion. —  •  It  is  not  yet  c  e  month  since  w« 
Issued  the  first  Edition  of  'Uill's  Philosopht,'  and  S'lch  lius  been  tlie  demand  for  the  work,  that  a 
second  Edition  is  required.  Very  favorable  notices  have  already  been  given  of  the  work  by  several 
piTiodicals,  and  able  judges,  whose  vfrdict  we  know  to  bo  of  t  e  liighest  authority,  have  pronounced 
the  book  a  true  and  trusty  guide  througli  the  intricacies  0  f  Philosophy. 

HILL'S  Philosophy,  Vol.  II,  being  the  Second  Part,  will  be  Ready  in  May. 

jgf^Specimen  copies  of  any  ot  tiie  above  win  be  sent  by  .M.ul  prepaid,  10  Teachers  and  otheri,  wiir 
1  vi'nv  to  lutroduotion,  on  receipt  of  one-half  the  retail  price. 
aS-Catalogues,  with  R  jcomincndatious,  etc.,  furnished  on  application. 

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